Digital Gene Expression profiles analysis of patients with HCV-related hepatic fibrosis

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is an important etiology of chronic liver disease. Multiple possible molecular mechanisms were involved in the progression of liver fibrosis in chronically HCV-infected patients. Therefore, the further revealing novel genes for regulating liver fibrosis might provide evidence for gene diagnosis and molecular-targeted therapy. In this study, we examined the differentially expressed mRNA in plasma samples from the healthy control and patients with HCV-related liver fibrosis, in order to explore the potential predicted and therapeutic target for the development of HCV-related liver fibrosis. Plasma samples from HCV patients with moderate to severe liver fibrosis (F3-4) and healthy control subjects (each group included 3 cases) were used for whole transcript digital gene expression (DGE) profiling sequencing.