FIG 3.

Epitope mapping of the antigen-specific T cell repertoire after vaccination with rNS3 or NS3 pepmix. CB6F1 and C3H mice were vaccinated three times at 2-week intervals with rNS3 or NS3 pepmix formulated in CAF09, as indicated. Splenocytes from four mice from each vaccine group were isolated and pooled 6 weeks after the priming vaccination. The cells were restimulated with each of the 62 individual peptides spanning the entire NS3 sequence. The peptide identifiers (ID) are indicated on the x axis. The bars indicate the total frequency of epitope-specific CD44⁺ CD4⁺ T cells (A) or CD44⁺ CD8⁺ T cells (B) in CB6F1 mice with the ability to produce IFN-γ, TNF-α, or IL-2 in any combination. (C) Similarly, the frequencies of cytokine-producing CD44⁺ CD4⁺ T cells are shown in a C3H background (no epitope-specific cytokine-producing CD44⁺ CD8⁺ T cells were detected). Open bars, cytokine responses observed only in mice vaccinated with NS3 pepmix; dotted lines, medium background. The data show responses from mice pooled in groups (n = 4) and are representative of two independent experiments.