Fig. 6

AZD1222 vaccination supported the induction of type 1 helper T cells. PBMCs were isolated on day 20 after vaccination and stimulated with (stim.) or without (unstim.) spike protein encoding mRNA (BNT162b2) for 24 h and analyzed by flow cytometry for the expression of inducible activation markers and intracellularly trapped cytokines among CD4⁺ cells. Sample sizes were n = 9 for AZD1222 and n = 15 for BNT162b2, respectively. Paired samples are illustrated by color coding. In vitro re-stimulation significantly increased CD25⁺CD137⁺ cells in both vaccination groups (A) and TNFα-producing cells in the AZD1222 vaccinated group, only B. C Neither vaccination allowed for the re-stimulation of IL-4-producing cells. D IL-2 and IL-10 co-expressing cells were significantly reduced among AZD1222 vaccinees only. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, resulting from paired t-test. ^##p < 0.01, resulting from Wilcoxon signed rank test for matched pairs