BACKGROUND AND THE PURPOSE OF THE STUDY Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) suppresses adaptive immune response. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of the IDO inhibitor namely 1-methyl-DL-tryptophan (DL-1-MT) on antibody production after vaccination with hepatitis B surface (HBs) antigen. METHODS Four groups of BALB/c mice were immunized with a HBs antigen vaccine. In the fir...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections are major worldwide public health problems. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the seroprevalence and epidemiological profile of hepatitis B and hepatitis C, to determine the impact of the national vaccination programme against hepatitis B on the prevalence of the hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) ca...

One hundred eight patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) underwent serologic testing for HBsAg, antibodies to HBs (anti-HBs), HBc (anti-HBc) and HCV (anti-HCV), and an assay for hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Ten (9.3%) of the 108 patients were positive for HBsAg and 96 (88.8%) were positive for anti-HCV. Both HBsAg and anti-HCV were present in 4 (3.7%...

BACKGROUND Hepatitis B remains the most common transfusion-transmitted viral infection. We explored the current status of pre-transfusion screening and post-transfusion follow-up testing for hepatitis B virus (HBV) surface antigen (HBsAg) and antibodies (anti-HBs) in blood recipients from an area of high HBV endemicity. METHODS A total of 7,780 blood recipients were transfused with at least 1...

Objective: Preventing communicable diseases in the armed forces (AF) of a country is considered as a national interest and has a great importance. There are limited data on the efficacy of vaccination of the navy personnel. This study was designed to evaluate both the safety and the immunogenicity of a recombinant hepatitis B (HB) vaccine made by Pasteur Institute of Iran (IPI-rHB), in this tar...

A 60-year-old woman with end stage liver cirrhosis caused by genotype 2 hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection received an orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). The patient was negative for the hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and positive for the anti-hepatitis B surface antibody (anti-HBs) prior to and one and a half months following the OLT. Due to reactivation of hepatitis C, treatment with...

Occult hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection (OBI) is characterized by presence of HBV DNA in blood or liver tissue without detectable HBV surface antigen (HBsAg), with or without antibodies to hepatitis B core antigen (anti-HBc) or antibodies against HBsAg (anti-HBs). A molecular and serological characterization was done of OBI in blood donors from Yucatan, Mexico. HBV DNA was found in 24 (6.4%) o...

BACKGROUND Five to ten percent of immunocompetent persons fail to develop a protective immune response to hepatitis B vaccination, and are defined non-responders (NR). We investigated the immune response to intradermal hepatitis B vaccination after pre-treatment of the skin with the TLR7 agonist imiquimod. METHODS Twenty-one non-responders (anti-HBs <10 IU/l after at least 6 intramuscular hep...