Effects of HBsAg pulsed dendritic vaccination on anti-HBs production in immunosuppressed rats after liver transplantation / 中华肝脏病杂志

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the effects of HBsAg pulsed dendritic vaccination on anti-HBs production in immunosuppressed rats after liver transplantation (LT).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Brown-Norway liver allografts were transplanted into Lewis recipients. The transplanted Lewis rats were injected with EK506 (2 mg/kg) and randomly divided into two groups rats in HBsAg-DCs group (n = 15) were intraperitoneally injected with HBsAg pulsed DCs at 14 d and 28 d after LT, and rats in the HBsAg group (n = 15) were injected with HBsAg (200 mul) once a week for 12 weeks. Rats without any immunosuppressive treatment after LT served as controls (n = 5). IL-2 and IFN-gamma mRNA expression in spleen were analyzed by RT-PCR, serum IL-2, IFN-gamma and anti-HBs were detected by ELISA.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>High dose of FK506 resulted in the immunosuppressed in LT rats, as evident by low production of IL-2 and IFN-gamma, and without liver rejection compared to rats in the control group. HBsAg-DCs induced high titer of anti-HBs antibody, however, titer of anti-HBs were seldom detectable in the HBsAg group at 1, 2 and 3 mouth after vaccination.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The capacity of HBsAg-DCs to induce anti-HBs in immunosuppressed rats suggested that DC vaccine may prevent HBV recurrence in liver transplanted patients.</p>