Hepatitis B virus related hepatocellular carcinoma: chronicity of infection--the opening to different pathways of malignant transformation?

A t(3;8) chromosomal translocation associated with hepatitis B virus intergration involves the carboxypeptidase N locus

Integrated hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA is found in the great majority of human hepatocellular carcinomas, suggesting that these viral integrations may be implicated in liver oncogenesis. Besides the insertional mutagenesis characterized in a few selected cases and the contribution of viral transactivators to cell transformation to malignancy, HBV has been shown to generate gross chromosomal rearrangements potentially involved in carcinogenesis. Here, we report a t(3;8) chromosomal translocation present in a hepatocellular carcinoma developed in noncirrhotic liver tissue. One side of the translocation, in 8p23, is shown to be in the vicinity of the carboxypeptidase N gene, a locus that is heavily transcribed in liver tissue and frequently deleted in hepatocellular carcinomas and other epithelial tumors. The other side of the translocation, in 3q27-29, is widely implicated in several types of translocations occurring in different malignancies, such as large-cell lymphomas. The present data strongly support a model in which HBV-induced chromosomal rearrangements play a key role during multistep liver oncogenesis.

Localization of hepatitis B virus core protein and viral DNA at the nuclear membrane

An early step in the replication of the hepatitis B virus (HBV) genome is the transport of the viral DNA into the nucleus of the infected cell. So far only little is known about the events and mechanisms at the nuclear membrane required for entry of the viral genome into the nucleus. Using a hepatoblastoma cell line that constitutively produces hepatitis B virions and in so doing displays intracellular viral amplification, we showed that nonparticulated HBV core protein is associated with nuclear membrane pore complexes. Additionally, viral DNA has been detected firmly attached to the nuclear membrane. Small amounts of viral core protein, as well as viral DNA, were detectable within the cell nucleus. However, core particles could not be shown at the nuclear membrane or within the nuclei of these cells. Our observations on localization of HBV DNA and core protein at the nuclear membrane thus provide a suggestion for further examinations of the transfer of the viral genome from the cytoplasm into the nucleus of the infected cell.

Expression of the X protein of hepatitis B virus in insect cells using recombinant baculoviruses

The baculovirus system was used to express the X protein of human hepatitis B virus (HBV). The X open reading frames (X ORFs) from cloned viral DNA of the HBV subtypes ayw and adr were introduced into the genome of Autographa californica nuclear polyhedrosis virus (AcNPV). The HBV-DNA of subtype adr derived from a hepatocellular carcinoma contains an X ORF and a 5' extended preX/X ORF, which were both used to construct X recombinant baculoviruses. Infection of Sf9 insect cells with these recombinant viruses yielded large amounts of the respective X proteins. They were identified by a set of mouse monoclonal antibodies directed against different epitopes of the ayw X protein using immunoblotting techniques. A subpopulation of the X protein expressed is modified, thus raising the molecular weight from the expected size of 17 kD to 21 kD. Indirect immunofluorescence and immunoelectron microscopy was performed to characterize the subcellular distribution of the X protein expressed in Sf9 cells. Data are presented that it accumulates as large globular structures within the cytoplasm and the nucleus of the infected cells.