Approximately three quarters of acute hepatitis C (HCV) infections evolve to a chronic state, while one
quarter are spontaneously cleared. Genetic predispositions strongly contribute to the development
of chronicity. We have conducted a genome-wide association study to identify genomic variants
underlying HCV spontaneous clearance using ImmunoChip in European and African ancestries.
We confrmed two previously reported signifcant associations, in the IL28B/IFNL4 and the major
histocompatibility complex (MHC) regions, with spontaneous clearance in the European population.
We further fne-mapped the association in the MHC to a region of about 50 kilo base pairs, down from
1 mega base pairs in the previous study. Additional analyses suggested that the association in MHC is
stronger in samples from North America than those from Europe
