The percentage of hepatocytes staining positive for nuclear core were quantified and correlated with disease phase. RESULTS: Clone sizes >1,000 hepatocytes were found in 8/9 IT, 5/6 eAg+ and 7/7 eAg- immune active (IA) patients. HCC

patients (5/5) all had large clone sizes. No significant difference in the incidence of large clones was seen across disease categories (p=n.s). GS-1101 price We investigated for a differential clinical profile indicating the presence of large clones. Clone size tended to increase with age, eAg- status and in HCC. The only significant difference noted was high HBV DNA (>9 log) is associated with fewer and smaller clones (p=<0.0005). We did, however, note that IT patients demonstrated increased distribution of nuclear core HBV stained hepatocytes (4.66%), compared to eAg+ (1.82%, p=0.02) and eAg- IA patients (0.88%, p=0.009). In keeping with an IT profile, patients with high levels of HBsAg (>10,000 IU/ml) displayed increased nuclear core HBV staining (4.03%), compared to those with lower HBsAg levels (0.46%,

p=0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Clonal hepatocyte expansion in patients considered IT is evidence of disease progression in the IT disease phase. However, nuclear core hepatocyte staining in addition to quantitative HBsAg may provide further data to distinguish distinct Acalabrutinib disease phase or progression. These data highlight the limitations of the current clinical definition of immune tolerance. Disclosures: Patrick T. Kennedy – Grant/Research Support: Roche, Gilead; Speaking and Teaching: BMS, Roche, Gilead William Mason – Independent Contractor: Sanofi aventis, Gilead, Janssen The following people have nothing to disclose: Upkar S. Gill, Antony Chen, Samuel Litwin, Antonio Bertoletti Introduction: Chronic hepatitis B is an immunologically driven disease. Host immunogenetic factors are determinant for eradication of the hepatitis B besides the viral factors. Toll like receptors (TLR) are pattern recognition receptors and found to be related to liver diseases. Here we aimed to genotype TLR-4, TLR-5 and TLR-9 polymorphisms

Telomerase in patients and spontaneous surface antigen seroconverted control group. Methods: One hundred thirty chronic hepatitis B patients who were followed up at hepatology clinic, and, age and gender matched healthy unrelated control group which consists of 168 people were enrolled. Anti Hbs and AntiHBc IgG positivity without prior hepatitis B vaccination were the selection criteria for the control group. Local ethics committee approval was taken. Genomic DNA was extracted from peripheral blood samples. TLR4 (rs4986790), TLR5 (rs5744174) and TLR9 (rs5743836) polymorphisms were detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) – restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) technique. The chi-square test was applied for comparing the allele frequencies between patient and healthy control group. Results: Patient group (84 male, 47 female, mean age= 47.