Fig. 3.

DNA damage accumulation and successful repair following SARS-CoV-2 and influenza vaccination in healthy individuals, unlike SLE. Α) Representative alkaline comet assay images of untreated PBMCs from one HC before and at four time-points after SARS-CoV-2 vaccination (1–4), one HC before and after influenza vaccination (5,6) and a SLE patient.Β) Tukey boxplots representing the endogenous DNA damage levels (Olive tail moment arbitrary units) as assessed by alkaline comet assay in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from healthy controls (HCs) before and after SARS-CoV-2 and influenza vaccination (n = 9) and in SLE patients (n = 26). P-values are derived from Wilcoxon signed-rank test and Mann-Whitney U test. * P < 0.05, ** P < 0.01.