***TASK*** the task is to summarize an input biomedical literature in six sentences 
    ***INPUT*** the input is a biomedical literature 
    ***OUTPUT*** the output is the summary of an input biomedical literature in six sentences 
    ***DOCUMENTATION*** 
    ***EXAMPLES*** 
    Input: BACKGROUND The glycosphingolipid alpha-galactosylceramide ( alpha-GalCer ) is known to stimulate invariant natural killer T-cells ( iNKTs ) and is able to induce powerful antiviral immune responses . The present dose-escalating r and omized placebo-controlled Phase I/II trial aim ed to investigate antiviral activity and safety of alpha-GalCer as a novel class of treatment for chronic hepatitis B patients . METHODS Patients were r and omly assigned to 0.1 microg/kg ( n=8 ) , 1 microg/kg ( n=6 ) or 10 microg/kg ( n=6 ) alpha-GalCer or placebo ( n=7 )  treatment . RESULTS Almost all alpha-GalCer-treated patients showed a rapid and strong decrease in natural killer T-cell ( NKT ) numbers . Patients with high baseline NKT numbers showed immune activation , including natural killer cell activation , increased serum tumour necrosis factor-alpha and interleukin-6 levels , and development of fever . Three patients demonstrated a transient decrease in hepatitis B virus ( HBV ) DNA . Only one alpha-GalCer-treated patient had a sustained decrease in HBV DNA at the end of follow-up . Four patients discontinued therapy because of fever shortly after drug administration . No significant side effects were observed . CONCLUSIONS alpha-GalCer ( 0.1 - 10 microg/kg ) used as monotherapy for chronic hepatitis B infection result ed in a strong decrease of NKTs , but did not clearly affect HBV DNA and alanine aminotransferase levels .  alpha-GalCer was poorly tolerated and is unlikely to be suitable as an alternative monotherapy to the current treatment regimen BACKGROUND & AIMS Chronic hepatitis B ( CHB ) infection is associated with reduced bone mineral density , but its association with fractures is unknown . Our objectives were to determine whether untreated or treated CHB-infected persons are at increased risk for hip fracture compared to uninfected persons . METHODS We conducted a cohort study among 18,796 untreated CHB-infected , 7777 treated CHB-infected , and 979,751 r and omly sample d uninfected persons within the U.S. Medicaid population s of California , Florida , New York , Ohio , and Pennsylvania ( 1999 - 2007 ) . CHB infection was defined by two CHB diagnoses recorded > 6 months apart and was classified as treated if a diagnosis was recorded and antiviral therapy was dispensed . After propensity score matching of CHB-infected and uninfected persons , Cox regression was used to estimate hazard ratios ( HRs ) with 95 % confidence intervals ( CIs ) of incident hip fracture in : ( 1 ) untreated CHB-infected vs. uninfected , and ( 2 ) treated CHB-infected vs. uninfected patients . RESULTS Untreated CHB-infected patients of black race had a higher rate of hip fracture than uninfected black persons ( HR , 2.55 [ 95 % CI , 1.42 - 4.58 ] ) . Compared to uninfected persons , relative hazards of hip fracture were increased for untreated white ( HR , 1.26 [ 95 % CI , 0.98 - 1.62 ] ) and Hispanic ( HR , 1.36 [ 95 % CI , 0.77 - 2.40 ] ) CHB-infected patients , and treated black ( HR , 3.09 [ 95 % CI , 0.59 - 16.22 ] ) and white ( HR , 1.90 [ 95 % CI , 0.81 - 4.47 ] ) CHB-infected patients , but these associations were not statistically significant . CONCLUSIONS Among U.S. Medicaid enrollees , untreated CHB-infected patients of black race had a higher risk of hip fracture than uninfected black persons AIM To investigate the therapeutic effect of autologous HBsAg-loaded dendritic cells ( DCs ) on patients with chronic hepatitis B. METHODS Monocytes were isolated from fresh peripheral blood of 19 chronic HBV-infected patients by Ficoll-Hypaque density gradient centrifugation and cultured by plastic-adherence methods . DCs were induced and proliferated in the culture medium with recombinant human granulocyte-macrophage-colony-stimulating factor ( rhGM-CSF ) and human interleukin-4 ( rhIL-4 ) . DCs pulsed with HBsAg for twelve hours were injected into patients subcutaneously twice at intervals of two weeks . Two patients received 100 mg oral lamivudine daily for 12 mo at the same time . HBV-DNA and viral markers in sera of patients were tested every two months . RESULTS By the end of 2003 , 11 of 19 ( 57.9 % ) patients had a clinical response to DC-treatment . HBeAg of 10 ( 52.6 % ) patients became negative , and the copies of HBV-DNA decreased 10(1.77+/-2.39 ) on average ( t = 3.13 , P<0.01 ) . Two cases co-treated with DCs and lamivudine had a complete clinical response . There were no significant differences in the efficient rate between the cases with ALT level lower than 2XULN and those with ALT level higher than 2XULN before treatment ( chi(2 ) = 0.0026 ) . CONCLUSION Autologous DC-vaccine induced in vitro can effectively suppress HBV replication , reduce the virus load in sera , eliminate HBeAg and promote HBeAg/anti-HBe transformation . Not only the patients with high serum ALT levels but also those with normal ALT levels can respond to DC vaccine treatment , and the treatment combining DCs with lamivudine can eliminate viruses more effectively Background and Aims : To observe safety and influence on viral load and peripheral T lymphocyte subsets of combination therapy with percutaneous microwave ablation ( PMWA ) and adoptive immunotherapy in hepatocellular carcinoma ( HCC ) with hepatitis B. Methods : Ten HCC （ D≤5 cm , fewer than 3 tumors ） patients were treated with radical PMWA and three courses of immunotherapy , which were started with PMWA , 2 weeks post-PMWA , and 3 months after PMWA  . Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were differentiated into phenotypically confirmed DCs and effector cells . Immature DCs , cytokine-induced killer cells ( CIK ) and cytotoxic T lymphocytes ( CTL ) were injected into the marginal area of ablated tumors under contrast-enhanced sonographic guidance . Under sonographic guidance , tumor lysate-pulsed DC was injected into groin lymph nodes , while DC-CIK and CTL were injected into the abdominal cavity . CIK was infused intravenously . Results : No adverse effects of grade Ⅲ/Ⅳ were observed . Viral load was decreased in 57.14 % ( four of seven ) of patients and was undetectable in two ( 28.6 % ) patients without antiviral therapy . The percentage of CD4+CD25high regulatory T lymphocytes decreased significantly , and the percentage of CD8+CD28- effector cells increased significantly 1 month after therapy . However , 6 months after therapy , there was no significant difference . Conclusion : Adoptive immunotherapy prescribed soon after PMWA for HCC patients was safe and ameliorated the percentage of peripheral lymphocytes . See commentary : New prospect s for hepatocellular carcinoma therapy : Microwave ablation working together with cellular Recently a new field of immunological research and clinical application of vaccines for therapeutic purpose s ( vaccine therapy ) has been developed for treating several chronic viral infections including chronic hepatitis B virus ( HBV ) infection . Administration of vaccine containing hepatitis B surface antigen ( HBsAg ) for 1 year has result ed in negative HBsAg and development of antibody to HBsAg ( anti-HBs ) in some , but not in all , HBV transgenic mouse ( HBV-Tg ) . In order to develop more potent regimen of vaccine therapy for chronic HBV carrier , we prepared a dendritic cell (DC)-based therapeutic vaccine and evaluated their therapeutic potential in HBV-Tg . DCs were isolated from single cell suspensions of murine spleen cells by collagenase digestion , density centrifugation and depletion of lymphocytes . Spleen DCs were cultured with HBsAg ( 100 microg ) for 24 h to produce HBsAg-pulsed DCs . HBV-Tg expressing HBsAg and HBV DNA in the sera were r and omly assigned to receive either HBsAg-pulsed DCs ( n = 20 ) or unpulsed DC ( n = 20 ) or vaccine containing HBsAg ( n = 39 ) or complete Freund 's adjuvant ( n = 20 ) or left untreated ( n = 20 ) . Only two intraperitoneal injections of HBsAg-pulsed DCs result ed in negative HBsAg and production of anti-HBs in the sera in all HBV-Tg ( n = 20 ) . However , administration of un-pulsed DCs ( n = 20 ) or vaccine containing HBsAg ( n = 39 ) or only complete Freund 's adjuvant did not induce negative HBsAg or production of anti-HBs in any HBV-Tg within 6 months of therapy commencement . Taken together , this study showed that HBsAg-pulsed DCs represent a highly potent therapeutic vaccine for chronic HBV infection and inspire optimism of using this vaccine in clinical conditions . A clinical trial of HBsAg-pulsed DC in patients with chronic hepatitis B is warranted Antigen-presenting autologous dendritic cells ( ADCs ) , primed with antigen , have been used in immunotherapy . We evaluated ADCs for treatment of chronic hepatitis B ( CHB ) .  ADCs were administered to 380 CHB patients .  Virological , biochemical , and serological responses were evaluated in each patient over the course of 48 weeks . Undetectable levels of HBV DNA were reported in 46.36 % of patients negative for the hepatitis B " e " antigen ( HBeAg ) and 3.13 % HBeAg-positive patients . Normalization of alanine aminotransferase levels occurred in both HBeAg-positive ( P=0.007 ) and HBeAg-negative ( P=0.003 ) patients . It appears that ADC vaccination effectively reconstructed the immunity and elicited virological , serological , and biochemical improvements in some patients with chronic HBV . No side effects were observed 
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What 's more , we conclude that IFN-λ1 combined with GM-CSF and IL-4 can induce DCs maturation , which could become a possibility to be applied to the autologus dendritic cell vaccine to treat chronic hepatitis