Hepatitis B virus (HBV) continues to be a serious worldwide health problem despite the use of protective HBV vaccines and therapeutic regimens against chronic HBV infection. Chronic HBV patients cannot induce sufficient immune responses against the virus. HBV and its antigens are believed to suppress immune responses during chronic infection. Hence, studying the role of HBV in immune suppression is very important for the development of alternative therapeutic strategies for HBV infections. In the present study, we investigated the effect of Hepatitis B virus e antigen (HBeAg) on the generation of bone marrow derived dendritic cells (BMDCs) and the stimulation of plasmacytoid DCs (pDCs). In the presence of HBeAg, the ratio of BMDCs was decreased, but the ratio of CD11b(+)Ly6G(+) immature myeloid cells was increased. The expression of 47 proteins was also changed during HBeAg treatment; however, CpG-induced MHC-II expression on pDCs was not affected. Our results indicate that HBeAg may have a negative effect on the generation of DCs from bone morrow precursors.
