Studies on the effects of estrogen on the antibody response in asymptomatic HB virus carrier

Antibody-forming cells against trinitrophenylated sheep red blood cells (TNP-SRBC) were induced to a similar extent when peripheral blood mononuclear cells from normal individuals, patients with chronic active hepatitis, 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 and patients with chronic active hepatitis, no such augmentation was demonstrable in asymptomatic carriers. The DNA synthesis in PWM-stimulated mononuclear cells was also increased by estrogen in normal individuals and patients with chronic active hepatitis, but this was not the case in asymptomatic carriers. These observations suggest that a factor (or factors) may be correlated at least partially with the induction of the asymptomatic carrier state, such as unresponsiveness to the estrogen.