Kinetics, subtype specificity and immunoglobulin class of anti-HBs induced by hepatitis B vaccine

The protective effect of anti-HBs against hepatitis B virus is proven only for the common antibody anti-HBs/a but not for subtype specific antibody. Using subtype specific radioimmunoassays, anti-HBs/a and anti-HBs/d were quantitated in recipients of an HBsAg/ad vaccine. All persons developed anti-HBs/a. The relative proportion of anti-HBs/d was variable and very high at the beginning of the immune response. At this time the anti-HBs was predominantly in the IgM class. IgM-anti-HBs disappeared rapidly after its peak value and was more slowly replaced by IgG-anti-HBs. Persons who had only anti-HBs or anti-HBc as the only antibody did usually not react with an anamnestic booster response and developed IgM- anti-HBs after vaccination. An injection schedule of 0, 1, 4 months produced ten times higher titers than a 0, 1.5, 3 months schedule 4 weeks after the third injection. However, 6 months later titers were essentially identical. Nine of ten "non-responders" became positive after a fourth injection.