Vaccines trigger a notably rapid response in the stromal cells of draining lymph nodes within the first hours after administration. Researchers at the University of Turku and the InFLAMES Flagship in Finland also discovered that the stromal alterations prime the lymph node landscape for the subsequent steps of vaccine-induced immune responses.
Lymph nodes are a key part of the human immune system, whose primary function is to combat infections. The effectiveness of vaccines is based on their ability to trigger events in lymph nodes that lead to the development of an immune response that protects the host against pathogens.
Researchers from Turku, Finland, observed that lymphatic endothelial cells and other stromal cells are the first cells in the lymph nodes to come into contact with vaccines. The vaccines induced several changes in stromal cells at the gene and protein levels within the first hours after vaccination, which in turn affected
lymph node function.
The changes in the stromal cells were observed before the development of the protective immune response triggered by the vaccine. The researchers also discovered that different vaccines activate lymph node stromal cells in different ways.
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