German experimental hepatitis B vaccine — Influence of variation of dosage schedule, sex and age differences on immunogenicity in health care workers

Abstract

Summary.Of the medical staff of our hospital 217 members at high risk for hepatitis B were immunized with an experimental hepatitis B vaccine and anti-HBs titers used to study the influence of two dosage schedules, age, and sex on immunogenicity. Participants were 34 years of age (mean; range, 20-61); they were divided into two groups and vaccinated three times. Group A received 42 lag HBsAg for each vaccination. Group B received 84 lag for the first and 21 lag for the second and third vaccinations. The seroconversion rate was 32.7% after the first, 78.8% after the second, and 95.7% after the third vaccination. The participants who failed to produce anti-HBs titer (3 IU/1; n = 9) or whose anti-HBs titers were below 50 IU/1 (n= 31) were vaccinated a fourth time. Only mild side effects of injections were observed in a third of all participants, usually in the form of a sore arm.Between groups A and B there were no significant differences as far as the seroconversion rate and anti-HBs titer were concerned. Nonresponders plus low-responders accounted for 19%. Female participants produced a markedly higher anti-HBs titer than males, and the female/male ratio among non-and low-responders was 1:2; among nonresponders, 1:2.5. There was a negative correlation of the anti-HBs titer with the age of the participants. These results not only have practical consequences for revaccination policy, but also offer the opportunity to further study the genetic regulation Abbreviations: anti-HBc = antibody to hepatitis B core antigen ; anti-HBe= antibody to hepatitis B e antigen; anti-HBs =anti-body to hepatitis B surface antigen; HBsAg=hepatitis B surface antigen; IU/1 = international units per liter; MSD = Merck, Sharp, and Dohme of the immune response to a complex peptide antigen in man.

Predictors of Poor Response After Primary Immunization of Hepatitis B Vaccines for Infants and Antibody Seroprotection of Booster in a Metropolis of China

“…A study in German also showed that the anti-HBs of males were lower than that of females. 11 Contrary to previous reports, 19,26 we did not observe any statistical correlation between birth weight and vaccine response.…”

“…4-9 Reasons for the lack of an effective antibody response are multifactorial, including obesity, male gender, immune suppression, as well as genetically related, and offer a challenge for research. 10-15 Anti-HBs titer <10 mIU/mL is considered as “nonresponse” to vaccination and these vaccinees have difficulty in avoiding infection with HBV. Besides, having an anti-HBs titer of 10 to 99 mIU/mL is regarded as “low-response” to vaccination, and the cutoff of 100 mIU/mL is recommended by some European health authorities as seroprotection in persons at increased risk of infecting HBV.…”

Factors Influencing the Response to Hepatitis B Vaccination of Hemodialysis Patients

“…While the response to various hepatitis B vaccination protocols has been examined extensively [3,13,14], this study was undertaken to analyze the influence of differ ent hemodialysis parameters on successful hepatitis B vaccination.…”

Maternal anti‐HBVs suppress the immune response of infants to hepatitis B vaccine

“…Multiple factors may contribute to the nonresponse to the HBV vaccine, and these include age, gender, nutritional status, as well as genetic factors. [9][10][11][12] In addition, several studies have revealed that maternal neutralizing antibodies against various pathogens could suppress infants' antibody response after their vaccination, such as measles vaccine, hepatitis A vaccine, mumps vaccine, tetanus vaccine and others. [13][14][15][16][17][18][19] However, whether the infants' antibody response was suppressed by maternal neutralizing antibodies in HBV vaccination is still controversial.…”