Overview

• University of Turku and InFLAMES scientists show lymphatic endothelial and other stromal cells react to vaccination within hours at gene and protein levels.
• These early stromal changes prime the lymph node environment before antigen-bearing white blood cells arrive from the injection site.
• Responses differed by vaccine platform, including a previously unreported accumulation of eosinophils in draining lymph nodes and nearby adipose tissue.
• The study used COVID-19 vaccines as experimental models and did not evaluate clinical effectiveness or safety.
• The findings were published Aug. 15 in Science Immunology and the team plans follow-up work to test whether specific stromal programs can be harnessed for better vaccine responses.