If we take a recently conducted study into consideration, men infected with HBV happen to be six times more probable than women to develop a chronic form of the disease.

Before we do proceed to any further, let’s have a discourse on Hepatitis B. Hepatitis B is basically a disease caused by hepatitis B virus (HBV) and does infect the liver of hominoidae, including humans, and causes an inflammation called hepatitis. Formerly known as “serum hepatitis”, the disease has caused epidemics in parts of Asia and Africa, and it is endemic in China. Hepatitis B virus, on the other hand, is a species of the genus Orthohepadnavirus, which is likewise a part of the Hepadnaviridae family of viruses. This virus is characterized by causing the disease Hepatitis B, but it can also give rise to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma.

Copious numbers of studies have already stated that almost 400 million people worldwide suffer from the onslaught of chronic hepatitis B, including a form that is highly infectious and can be transmitted through blood, saliva and sexual contact.

Now, let’s revert to the main topic. All these speculations did develop as a result of the lab experiments with mice, where researchers under the aegis of Shuhan Sun, geneticist at the Second Military Medical University, China, came across anomalous forms of a protein, apolipoprotein A-I (Apo A-I), in the livers of infected male mice but not infected females.

The sudden development made the researchers enthusiastic and this was followed by their identification of abnormal forms of these Apo A-I proteins in the blood of men infected with HBV, but not in women. This has come to the fore thanks to the release of the American Chemical Society (ACS).

In accordance with the scientists, aside from explaining the gender differences, the proteins may render vital markers for tracking the progression of Hepatitis B.