Abstracts (complete list) - Wissenschaft Online

Monika Lindemann, Alexandra Schumann, Melanie Fiedler, Camino Valentin-Gamazo,
Dietmar Knop, Christoph E. Broelsch, Michael Roggendorf, Hans Grosse-Wilde
Transfer of adoptive immunity to hepatitis B virus by liver
transplantation*
Liver transplantation is often the ultimate option of therapy for chronically hepatitis B
virus (HBV) infected patients. Despite antiviral therapy reinfection is still a problem.
Adoptive transfer of HBV immunity with the liver after vaccination of living liver donors
could be a new approach to prevent reinfection in the recipients. The period in which to
achieve HBV immunity in donors is usually short (1-2 months). In this study we
vaccinated living liver donors in a short time immunization protocol (4 injections in two
weeks intervals) using Hepimmune (Berna Biotech), a recombinant vaccine that
contains the PreS1, PreS2, and S proteins of HBV. Humoral (anti-HBs titer) and cellular
(proliferation assay) immune responses were examined prior to each immunization, pre
and post transplantation. So far 14 patients received a liver from an immunized living
donor. In 4 recipients adoptive immune transfer was observed. One HBV naive recipient
developed humoral and cellular immune responses post transplantation (anti-HBs of
1800 IU/l and stimulation index of 4.9). Two further naive recipients showed cellular
immune responses (stimulation indices of 2.7 and 7.1) and in one chronically HBV
infected recipient specific immune responses were measurable at day 5 (anti-HBs of 120
IU/l) and vigorously increased thereafter (anti-HBs of 58000 IU/l and stimulation index
of 3.1). This finding most likely reflects the boosting of HBV specific immunity by HBs
antigen persisting in the host. Taken together, we were able to show that HBV specific
humoral and cellular immunity can be transferred to recipients with the liver graft.
Thereby, the reinfection in chronically HBV infected recipients could be prevented.
*This study was partially supported by the DFG (KFO 117).