Figure 3.

Sex-biased mucosal T cell responses induced by the protein mucosal vaccine in the lungs of C57BL/6 mice. (A) IFNγ+ and/or TNF-α+ secreting CD4+ T cell responses in male and female mice in i.n. boosted Grp2. (B) composition of spike-specific CD4+ T cells in i.n. boosted Grp2 of both sexes. (C) IFNγ+ and/or TNF-α+ secreting CD8+ T cell responses in i.n. boosted Grp2. (D) composition of spike-specific CD8+ T cells in i.n. boosted Grp2. (E) i.m. boosted Grp3 IFNγ+ and/or TNF-α+ secreting CD8+ T cell responses. (F) i.m. boosted Grp3 composition of spike-specific CD8+ T cells. (G, H) sex differences in spike-specific lung CD4+ and CD8+ T_RM in i.n. boosted grp2, respectively. Data are representative of two independent experiments (n=4 or 5 per sex). The nonparametric Mann-Whitney test was used to compare sex differences in T cell responses (A, C, E, G, H). The significance levels for p-values were denoted as follows: 0.1234 (ns), 0.0332 (*), and 0.0021(**).