Studies on the effects of estrogen on antibody responses in asymptomatic HB virus carriers and non-responders to HB vaccine inoculation.

Antibody-forming cells against trinitrophenylated sheep red blood cells (TNP-SRBC) were induced to similar extents, when peripheral blood mononuclear cells from normal individuals, non-responders to HB vaccine inoculation and asymptomatic HBV carriers were stimulated in vitro with pokeweed mitogen (PWM). Although these antibody responses were significantly augmented by adding estrogen simultaneously with PWM to mononuclear cell cultures prepared from normal individuals, no such augmentation was demonstrable in cultures from asymptomatic HBV carriers and non-responders to HB vaccine inoculation. Interleukin-1 production and DNA synthesis in PWM- and PHA-stimulated mononuclear cell were also increased by estrogen in normal individuals, but not in the other two groups. These observations suggest that asymptomatic HBV carriers and non-responders to HB vaccine inoculation share a similar deficiency, not found in normal subjects, with regard to the modulatory effects of estrogen.