Patients

A total of 10 HIV/HCV-co-infected patients and 10 HCV-infected patients who underwent liver transplantation in 1 of 4 Japanese institutions involved in this study, were enrolled (Table 1). Thirteen (7 HCV-infected and 6 HIV/HCV-co-infected patients) of 20 patients were examined using a miRNA array. No patients had hepatocellular carcinoma. The liver function of both groups was similar as per the Child-Pugh score (HCV-infected group: 11.9±1.9; HCV/HIV-co-infected group: 11.2±1.4, p=0.332). All HIV/HCV co-infected patients were treated with HAART (9 patients with nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor [NRTI] and 1 patient with non-NRTI [NNTRI]). The Institutional Review Board or the independent Ethics Committee at each institution approved this study.

Clinical features of patients.

MELD – Model For End-Stage Liver Disease, HCV – hepatitis C virus, HIV – human immunodeficiency virus, INR – international normalized ratio.