Fig. 3.

Vaccine-induced T cell responses are generated after DNA prime-protein boost regimens. Vaccinated mice were sacrificed one week after the final protein boost vaccination and their splenocytes assessed for antigen-reactive T cells using 2 sets of 15mer overlapping by 11 amino acid peptide pools. Flow cytometric analysis of antigen-specific T cells was achieved by a progressive gating strategy to identify CD3⁺CD4⁺ or CD3⁺CD8⁺ T cell populations. Mean percentages of the peptide pool-reactive CD4⁺ (A) and CD8⁺ (B) T cells within vaccination groups (after exposure to stimulation) expressing IFN-γ, IL-2 and TNF-α. Statistical significance was assessed using Mann Whitney U test with *p ≤ 0.05 or **p ≤ 0.005.