Work

Distinct transcriptional states of draining lymph node T cells following influenza vaccination in individuals with underrepresented ancestries

Year: 2026

Type: preprint

Abstract: The transcriptional and cell repertoire changes of lymph node (LN) T cells following influenza vaccination have been under-investigated across different ethnicities. Draining (dLN) and non-draining (ndLN) axillary LN cells from 17 participants with genotypically varied African or Asian ancestry ( ISRCTN13657999 ) were collected by fine needle aspiration (FNA) before, 5 days and 42 days after adjuvanted influenza vaccination and analysed by single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq). The early dLN transcriptional profile and cellular dynamics were distinct from the ndLN; BACH2 expressing T cells were highly induced, exhibiting stem-like and unique quiescence signatures. Proliferating T follicular helper cells (Tfh) were enriched in dLN and Th1-like Tfh predominated with highly induced transcriptional changes. The BACH2 + T cell state and Th1-like Tfh cells, transcriptionally distinct from germinal centre (GC) T cells, were co-localised with LAMP3 + dendritic cells in the T cell zone of publicly available LN datasets, a region that was also distinct from GC Tfh niches. Together, these findings indicate that the induction of a robust, proliferative, and transcriptionally diverse Tfh response, alongside a discrete subset of BACH2 + T cells, represents a marked feature of the early T cell zone immune response to adjuvanted influenza vaccine in the dLN.

Source: bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)

DOI: 10.64898/2026.09.19.752896