title: Comparison of immunogenicity of recombinant and plasma derived hepatitis B antigen in guinea-pigs.
abstract: Four different preparations of hepatitis B antigen (HBsAg) were tested in parallel with respect to their ability to elicit anti-HBs in guinea-pigs. We compared the effect of low doses (5 micrograms single dose and 30 micrograms total amount) of human plasma derived and recombinant HBsAg, in purified forms or prepared as vaccines, respectively. The highest titre of anti-HBs developed was detected in guinea-pigs immunized with plasma derived HBsAg, followed the by response in animals immunized with plasma derived vaccine. Purified recombinant antigen and recombinant vaccine exhibited poor immunogenicity compared with plasma derived antigen preparations. The increase in the dose of recombinant antigen (150 micrograms total amount) resulted in markedly improved response in two out of ten animals. Anti-HBs immunoglobulin fractions from pooled sera within each group of animals were isolated, partially purified, coupled to polystyrene beads and subsequently used in immunoradiometric assay with monoclonal 125I-anti-HBs. Only the anti-HBs isolated from pooled sera of animals immunized with purified plasma derived antigen met the requirements for high sensitivity and antigen specificity in such assay. Comparable properties were exhibited by the anti-HBs obtained from one guinea-pig immunized with a larger amount of recombinant antigen. With these two anti-HBs immunoglobulin preparations, amounts as low as 1 ng of HBsAg could be detected.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Immunology, Department of Radioimmunology, Zagreb, Yugoslavia.
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Valinger
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tresćec
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tomasić
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000906:Antibodies / Q000276:immunology; D005260:Female; D006168:Guinea Pigs; D006511:Hepatitis B Antigens / Q000276:immunology*; D007114:Immunization; D007136:Immunoglobulins / Q000032:analysis; D051379:Mice; D011863:Radioimmunoassay / Q000379:methods; D014614:Vaccines, Synthetic / Q000276:immunology*; D014761:Viral Hepatitis Vaccines / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D000906:Antibodies; D006511:Hepatitis B Antigens; D007136:Immunoglobulins; D014614:Vaccines, Synthetic; D014761:Viral Hepatitis Vaccines