Maternal-Derived Hepatitis B Virus e Antigen Alters Macrophage Function in Offspring to Drive Viral Persistence after Vertical Transmission (Immunity)

Children born to mothers who carry HBV often become chronic HBV carriers. By developing a mouse model to study this vertical transmission, Ou and colleagues find that maternal HBV e antigen conditions macrophages of the offspring to suppress the CTL response to HBV, resulting in HBV persistence in the offspring.