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. 2021 Jul 15;131(14):e150175. doi: 10.1172/JCI150175

Figure 4. Characteristics of the spike-specific Th cell response with respect to memory formation and ex vivo proliferation/activation.

Figure 4

Spike- or CEF-specific CD154+CD137+ Th cells were assessed for their memory or effector phenotype with CD45RO+CD62L– identifying TEM, CD45RO+CD62L+ central memory (TCM), and CD45RO–CD62L– effector-like T cells (TEff). (A) Exemplary staining of spike-specific vs. total Th cells from a healthy donor (left) and subset comparison based on the respective mean values for each group (right). (B) Data of spike- and CEF-specific TEM (left panels; spike/CEF: ANOVA) and TEff (right panels; spike/CEF: ANOVA) with n as in Figure 2B. Antigen-specific Th cells were further characterized for (C) ex vivo proliferation based on Ki67 expression (spike/CEF: Kruskal-Wallis test), (D) expression of the activation/exhaustion marker PD1 (spike: ANOVA, CEF: Kruskal-Wallis test), or (E) costimulatory receptor CD28 (spike/CEF: Kruskal-Wallis test) with exemplary overlays of spike-specific vs. total T cells (left) and summarized data for all groups (right) with n as in Figure 2B. SSC-A, side scatter area. Graphs show mean ± SD.