Figure 2.

CD4 helper antigens increase the frequency of vaccine-induced CD8⁺ T cells in blood

(A) Schematic overview of the experiment: mice were vaccinated intradermally three times, at 3-week intervals, with the indicated vaccines. Mice were bled at the indicated time points to quantify antigen-specific CD8⁺ T cells by flow cytometry (Figures S2A and S2B). (B) Kinetics of OVA-specific CD8⁺ T cell responses in blood. Data are derived from a single experiment with 10 mice per group, representative of 3 experiments. Bars and whiskers represent means and standard errors (SEM), respectively. Data were analyzed in mixed-effects analysis followed by Tukey’s multiple comparisons test comparing noHELP, neoHELP, and uniHELP. ∗p < 0.05, ∗∗p < 0.01, ∗∗∗p < 0.001, ∗∗∗∗p < 0.0001. (C) OVA-, (D) Adpgk-, (E) Irgq-specific CD8⁺ T cell percentages in blood at the peak of the tertiary response, 52 days post primary vaccination. Data in (C)–(E) are from 3 independent experiments with 50 mice per group in total. Dots represent individual values, while bars and whiskers represent means and standard errors (SEM). Data were analyzed by one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s multiple comparisons test comparing noHELP, neoHELP, and uniHELP. ∗p < 0.05, ∗∗p < 0.01, ∗∗∗p < 0.001, ∗∗∗∗p < 0.0001.