Enhancement of the immune response to hepatitis B virus vaccine by antigenspecific IgM

In the present study, modulation of antibody response induced by Hepatitis B virus vaccine-IgM complex was investigated. Purified IgM-type anti HBv mo noclonal antibody (1B11) was complexed to commercially available HBv vaccin e (GenHevac B Pasteur, France) at varying concentrations of HBsAg (0.5, 1, 1.5 mu g of HBsAg) and used to immunize BALB/c mice. An enhanced humoral im mune response was obtained with the HBv vaccine IgM complex at all the dose s compared with those immunized by vaccine alone and increased antibody lev els were observed with increased concentrations of HBsAg in vaccine formula tion. Immunization with HBv vaccine IgM complex mostly generated IgG-type a ntibodies in the sera of mice, and also gave rise to the development of hyb rid cells which predominantly produced IgG-type monoclonal antibodies. Henc e, results from this study indicate that 1B11 call be effectively used to o btain a better immune response to HBv vaccine. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B. V. All rights reserved.