Comparison of antibody response to hepatitis B vaccination in infants with positive or negative maternal hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) in cord blood: implication for the role of HBeAg as an immunotolerogen

Figures & data

Table 1. Demographics and baseline characteristics of infants.

Variable	HBeAg-positive group, n = 124	HBeAg-negative group, n = 141	P
Male infant, N (%)	75 (60.0)	79 (56.0)	0.513
Gestational period (week)	39.6 ± 1.1	39.5 ± 1.0	0.244
Birth weight (g)	3408.8 ± 426.0	3425.6 ± 439.9	0.752
Birth length (cm)	50.0 ± 0.3	50.1 ± 0.9	0.211
Infant’s age at follow-up (months)	10.0 ± 2.3	10.1 ± 2.3	0.590

HBeAg, hepatitis B e antigen.

Table 2. Anti-HBs titers of infants with different HBeAg status.

	Anti-HBs in infants (mIU/ml)^†
Distribution of response*	HBeAg-positive Group, n = 124	HBeAg-negative Group, n = 141	P
Non-responder	7.23 (6.11–7.92)	6.35 (6.04–6.90)	0.275
Low-responder	56.36 (21.13–99.20)	40.14 (11.63–94.84)	0.107
Medium-responder	455.57 (117.37–922.00)	376.04 (102.59–975.23)	0.099
High-responder^‡	≥1000	≥1000	N/A

Anti-HBs, antibodies against HBsAg; HBeAg, hepatitis B e antigen. N/A, not applicable.

*The non-, low-, medium-, and high-responders were defined based on the anti-HBs levels <10, 10–99.9, 100–999.9, and anti-HBs ≥1000 mIU/ml, respectively.

† Anti-HBs level was expressed in geometric mean concentration (GMC) followed by minimum and maximum values.

‡ Since anti-HBs was beyond the upper detection limit (1000 mIU/ml), the GMC and range of anti-HBs titers were not calculated.

Figure 1. Proportion of different responders in infants with different hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) status.

Table 3. The frequency of different responders with different HBeAg levels.

	HBeAg in cord blood (log10 S/CO)**
Distribution of response*	≥1.39, n = 64	<1.39, n = 60	χ^2	P
Non-responder (%)	1 (1.6)	2 (3.3)	0.932	0.818
Low-responder (%)	10 (15.6)	7 (11.7)
Medium-responder (%)	28 (43.8)	25 (41.7)
High-responder (%)	25 (39.0)	26 (43.3)

HBeAg, hepatitis B e antigen.

*The non-, low-, medium-, and high-responders were defined based on the anti-HBs levels <10, 10–99.9, 100–999.9, and anti-HBs ≥1000 mIU/ml, respectively.

**HBeAg was grouped by the median level 1.39 log₁₀ S/CO.