Fig 3.

Efferent CD8⁺ T cell responses become evident with refined analysis using 9–13mer peptide epitopes. a) Schematic representation of primary (afferent) and secondary assay readout (efferent) in vitro stimulation conditions of T cells from an HLA-A2⁺ study participant. MDC1 loaded with a 21mer Gag peptide (Gag _144–164) was the afferent stimulator, and either the same 21mer peptide or the known HLA-A2-restricted 9mer epitope TV9 (Gag _151–159) contained within that 21mer sequence was used as the efferent stimulator in readout assays. b) IFNγ ELISpot assay results showing T cell responses induced by the 9mer and 21mer efferent peptide stimulators, recorded as IFNγ SFU/10⁶ cells. c) Peptide antigen-induced IFNγ production by CD8⁺ T cells determined by ICS flow cytometry analysis. *p<0.05 [determined by Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed rank test].