Most patients in our study (>85%) had hepatitis B virus infection, and Wang et al.53 showed that serum APOB levels were much lower in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus infection than in healthy individuals, and APOB levels were also lower in pHBV1.3-transfected HepG2 cells than in cells transfected with vector only. This evidence concerns the gene APOB and chronic hepatitis B virus infection.