Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Dec 28, 2018; 24(48): 5525-5536
Published online Dec 28, 2018. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v24.i48.5525
Safety of hepatitis B virus core antibody-positive grafts in liver transplantation: A single-center experience in China
Ming Lei, Lu-Nan Yan, Jia-Yin Yang, Tian-Fu Wen, Bo Li, Wen-Tao Wang, Hong Wu, Ming-Qing Xu, Zhe-Yu Chen, Yong-Gang Wei
Ming Lei, Lu-Nan Yan, Jia-Yin Yang, Tian-Fu Wen, Bo Li, Wen-Tao Wang, Hong Wu, Ming-Qing Xu, Zhe-Yu Chen, Yong-Gang Wei, Department of Liver Surgery, Liver Transplantation Center, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan Province, China
Author contributions: Lei M and Yan LN conceived and designed the study; Lei M and Yang JY analyzed the data; Lei M and Yan LN drafted the manuscript; Yan LN and Yang JY critically revised the manuscript; Yang JY, Wen TF, Li B, Wang WT, Wu H, Xu MQ, Chen ZY and Wei YG acquired the data and provided technical support; all authors have read and approved the final version to be published.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of the West China Hospital of Sichuan University.
Informed consent statement: Written informed consent was obtained from all participants.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare no conflicts of interest related to this article.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Lu-Nan Yan, MD, Professor, Department of Liver Surgery, Liver Transplantation Center, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, 37 Guoxuexiang, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan Province, China. yanlunan688@126.com
Telephone: +86-28-85422867 Fax: +86-28-85422867
Received: November 9, 2018
Peer-review started: November 12, 2018
First decision: December 7, 2018
Revised: December 8, 2018
Accepted: December 13, 2018
Article in press: December 13, 2018
Published online: December 28, 2018
Core Tip

Core tip: Considering the shortage of suitable liver grafts for liver transplantation, using hepatitis B virus core antibody positive (HBcAb+) livers might be a possible way to enlarge the donor pool. However, the safety is controversial and not widely evaluated in Chinese patients. Our retrospective study enrolling 1071 patients found that HBcAb+ grafts did not affect the long-term outcome. Although post-transplant hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection had a relatively higher incidence in HBV surface antigen-negative patients with such grafts, it did not affect patient and graft survival. We also found that sufficient anti-HBs titers in recipients might be a protective factor against de novo HBV infection. Combined with proper postoperative antiviral prophylaxis, utilization of HBcAb+ grafts is feasible.