title: Clinical evaluation of low dose intradermally administered hepatitis B vaccine: a comparison of plasma-derived and recombinant yeast-derived vaccines.
abstract: A study of the safety and immunogenicity of plasma-derived and yeast-derived recombinant hepatitis B vaccines administered by the intradermal route is reported. Three groups of medical students were inoculated intradermally at 0, 1 and 6 months with 2 micrograms of vaccine. Group 1 (n = 24) were administered plasma-derived vaccine (Green Cross HB-vaccine), group 2 (n = 21) yeast-derived recombinant vaccine (Engerix B), and group 3 (n = 13) two doses of plasma-derived vaccine with a third dose of yeast-derived vaccine. One month after administration of the third dose of vaccine, seroconversion rates in each of the three groups were 83, 100 and 92%, respectively, with anti-HBs geometric mean titres (GMT) of 329 IU l-1, 1390 IU l-1 and 1061 IU l-1. Although differences in seroconversion rates were not statistically significant, the GMT in group 1 was significantly lower than that in group 2 (p less than 0.01) and group 3 (p less than 0.05). The results presented show that intradermal administration of plasma-derived or yeast-derived vaccine, or a combination of the two, can provoke an effective immunogenic response to hepatitis B virus at approximately 10% of the cost of intramuscular vaccination. In this study administration of yeast-derived vaccine yielded better results than plasma-derived vaccine when administered by the intradermal route.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Microbiology, University of Marmara, Medical School, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Söyletir
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bahçeci
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Akoğlu
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Soyoğul
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Lawrance
mesh_terms: D000279:Administration, Cutaneous; D000328:Adult; D006510:Hepatitis B Antibodies / Q000032:analysis; D017325:Hepatitis B Vaccines; D006801:Humans; D014614:Vaccines, Synthetic / Q000276:immunology*; D014761:Viral Hepatitis Vaccines / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D006510:Hepatitis B Antibodies; D017325:Hepatitis B Vaccines; D014614:Vaccines, Synthetic; D014761:Viral Hepatitis Vaccines