Department of Immunology, School of Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, P.O. Box 7134845794, Shiraz, Iran.
Shiraz Institute for Cancer Research, School of Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
Curr Microbiol. 2023 Jul 24;80(9):296. doi: 10.1007/s00284-023-03367-0.
Vaccination is the most effective way to prevent Hepatitis B (HB) infection. The goal of vaccination is to induce immunological memory. Hence, determining the frequency of memory B-cell (MBC) subsets is an important indicator of vaccine efficacy. This study aimed to evaluate the frequency of different B-cell subpopulations and the expression of PD-1 on B-cell subsets in low responders (LR) and high responders (HR) to HB vaccine. According to our findings, the expression level of PD-1 was significantly higher on atypical MBC (atMBC) than that of naive B cell and classical MBC (cMBC) in LR and HR groups. Moreover, cMBCs had a significant higher PD-1 expression than naive B cells in LR group. No significant differences were found in the frequency of various B-cell subpopulations and the expression level of PD-1 on B-cell subsets between LR and HR groups. We observed a negative correlation between age and HBsAb titer and a positive correlation between age and PD-1 expression level on cMBC in LR group. It can be concluded that inadequate specific memory B-cell response, rather than total memory B-cell deficiency, may be implicated in low responsive rate to HB vaccine in healthy individuals.
接种疫苗是预防乙型肝炎（HB）感染最有效的方法。疫苗接种的目的是诱导免疫记忆。因此，确定记忆 B 细胞（MBC）亚群的频率是衡量疫苗疗效的一个重要指标。本研究旨在评估低应答者（LR）和高应答者（HR）对乙型肝炎疫苗的不同 B 细胞亚群频率和 PD-1 在 B 细胞亚群上的表达。根据我们的发现，在 LR 和 HR 组中，非典型 MBC（atMBC）上 PD-1 的表达水平明显高于幼稚 B 细胞和经典 MBC（cMBC）。此外，LR 组中 cMBC 的 PD-1 表达水平明显高于幼稚 B 细胞。LR 和 HR 组之间各种 B 细胞亚群的频率和 B 细胞亚群上 PD-1 的表达水平没有差异。我们观察到 LR 组中年龄与 HBsAb 滴度呈负相关，与 cMBC 上 PD-1 表达水平呈正相关。可以得出结论，在健康个体中，对乙型肝炎疫苗低应答率可能与特异性记忆 B 细胞反应不足而非总记忆 B 细胞缺乏有关。
