Anticoli Simona, Capanna Silvia, Volpin Anna, Melis Paola, Ortona Elena, Vonesch Nicoletta, Tomao Paola, Scapellato Maria Luisa, Ruggieri Anna
Reference Center for Gender-specific Medicine, Istituto Superiore di Sanità [Italian National Institute of Health], Rome, Italy.
Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Epidemiology and Hygiene, Italian Workers' Compensation Authority (INAIL), Monte Porzio Catone, (Rome) Italy.
Vaccine X. 2024 Dec 17;22:100605. doi: 10.1016/j.jvacx.2024.100605. eCollection 2025 Jan.
Globally, healthcare workers (HCWs) are at greater risk of contracting Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection than the general population, due to their frequent contact with blood or body fluids. For this reason, WHO underlined the importance of HBV immunization for all HCWs. Although sex is now considered one of the key factors influencing the intensity and duration of the immune response to vaccines, sex-specific analysis of vaccine-induced anti-HBs antibodies is rarely conducted. Our study aimed to evaluate the anti-HBs antibodies' long-lasting protective titers in male and female HCWs to identify sex differences in the humoral response to the HBV vaccine. The study was conducted on 2106 HCWs (1636 females and 470 males) working at the Padova University Hospital, Italy. Our results report significantly higher anti-HBs levels in female HCWs than in males, particularly when considering HCWs for whom the elapsed time since vaccination is greater than 10 years, suggesting a greater persistence of anti-HBs in females. In conclusion, our findings could contribute to understanding differences in the antibody response to the HBV vaccine between male and female subjects and improving vaccination strategies for HCWs.
在全球范围内，医护人员（HCWs）由于频繁接触血液或体液，感染乙型肝炎病毒（HBV）的风险比普通人群更高。因此，世界卫生组织强调了对所有医护人员进行HBV免疫接种的重要性。尽管性别现在被认为是影响疫苗免疫反应强度和持续时间的关键因素之一，但很少对疫苗诱导的抗-HBs抗体进行性别特异性分析。我们的研究旨在评估男性和女性医护人员中抗-HBs抗体的持久保护滴度，以确定对HBV疫苗体液反应中的性别差异。该研究对意大利帕多瓦大学医院的2106名医护人员（1636名女性和470名男性）进行。我们的结果显示，女性医护人员的抗-HBs水平显著高于男性，特别是考虑到自接种疫苗以来已过去10年以上的医护人员，这表明女性体内抗-HBs的持久性更强。总之，我们的研究结果有助于理解男性和女性受试者对HBV疫苗抗体反应的差异，并改善医护人员的疫苗接种策略。
