Quantitative profiling reveals minor changes of T cell receptor repertoire in response to subunit inactivated influenza vaccine

Vaccination against influenza is widely used to protect against seasonal flu epidemic although its effectiveness is debated. Here we performed deep quantitative T cell receptor repertoire profiling in peripheral blood of a healthy volunteer in response to trivalent subunit influenza vaccine. We did not observe significant rebuilding of peripheral blood T cell receptors composition in response to vaccination. However, we found several clonotypes in memory T cell fraction that were undetectable before the vaccination and had a maximum concentration at day 45 after vaccine administration. These cells were found in lower concentration in the course of repertoire monitoring for two years period. Our observation suggests a potential for recruitment of only a limited number of new T cells after each seasonal influenza vaccination.