The skin is an attractive tissue for vaccination due to the impact of the cutaneous micro-environment on the adaptive and non-adaptive immune responses. Conventionally many vaccines are administered subcutaneously. Immune-competent cells however are not resident in the subcutaneous fat tissue, but instead are located in the epidermis and the dermis of the skin. Depending on the targeted skin layer and administration method, different immunological outcomes are thus anticipated following vaccination.~In the present study, the immunogenicity (in terms of activation of B-cell mediated and T-cell mediated immune responses) of laser-assisted epidermally administered seasonal influenza vaccine will be compared to needle-based intradermal administration of the same seasonal influenza vaccine.
It is the aim of the present study to compare the immunogenicity induced by a laser-assisted epidermally administered seasonal influenza vaccine to an intradermally administered seasonal influenza vaccine.