Humoral and cellular immune responses to HBV in the blood donors

AIM: To study the magnitude and correlation of humoral and cellular immune responses to hepatitis surface antigen(HBsAg),preS1+S2 antigen,and core antigen(HBcAg) in the blood donors.METHODS: Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA) was employed to scan the humoral immune responses to HBsAg,preS1+S2 antigen,and HBcAg.Enzyme linked immunospot assay(ELISPOT) was used to check the antigen specific IFN-γ secreting cells stimulated by HBsAg,preS1+S2 antigen or HBcAg in peripheral blood mononuclear cell from blood donors.RESULTS: The prevalence of humoral immune response to preS1+S2 antigen was as high as 85.7%(48/56),compared with the lower response to HBcAg(30.4%,17/56).In the cellular immune response,there was no difference between preS1+S2 antigen and HBcAg,both of which were stronger than the response stimulated by HBsAg.PreS1+S2 antigen or HBsAg specific humoral immune and cellular immune responses were highly correlated,which could not be observed in the HBcAg specific humoral immune and cellular immune responses(P0.05).CONCLUSION: Either humoral or cellular immune responses to HBsAg,preS1+S2 antigen and HBcAg could be detected in the blood donors.PreS1+S2 antigen immune responses,however,were most powerful,which may suggest that PreS1+S2 antigen may be a candidate for the further HBV vaccine.