Abstract: Objective To investigate the correlation between HCV RNA load and DARC rs12075 in HCV infected patients. Methods In 196 Dalian Han HCV infected patients,DARC rs12075 polymorphisms were typed by using TaqMan probe Real-time PCR and HCV RNA viral load was measured by Roche COBAS AmpliPrep/COBAS TaqMan with its supporting reagents. The HCV RNA viral load data were presented with beanplots,and the differences were compared through the Mann-Whitney U test. Results DARC rs12075 was genotyped and,171 FY^*A/FY^*A and 25 FY^*A/FY^*B patients were identified. The difference of HCV RNA viral load between FY^*A/FY^*A and FY^*A/FY^*B patients was not significant. In addition,we divided the patients into four groups according to HCV RNA viral load,and compared the HCV RNA viral load between FY^*A/FY^*A and FY^*A/FY^*B patients in each group. But the differences were not statistically significant. Conclusion Our results showed that HCV RNA load in peripheral blood of HCV patients was not related to DARC rs12075 polymorphism.

Key words: Hepatitis C, HCV RNA, Viral load, DARC, Polymorphism