FIG. 5.
The interaction between gC and C3 is important for HSV-1 virulence in mice. (A) C57BL/6 C3 knockout or C57BL/6 parental strain complement-intact mice were inoculated intradermally with 5 × 105 PFU of NS-gCnull or rNS-gCnull virus. Disease scores were determined at the inoculation site by counting the number of lesions. Disease scores for NS-gCnull were 20.6 in C3 knockout mice and 7.4 in complement-intact mice (P < 0.0001). Disease scores for rNS-gCnull were 27.1 in C3 knockout mice and 26.1 in complement-intact mice (P = nonsignificant). The number of animals studied is indicated above each bar. (B) Dose-response studies of rNS-gCnull in C57BL/6 complement-intact mice inoculated with 5 × 105, 5 × 104, 5 × 103, or 5 × 102 PFU. Disease scores plotted represent the mean ± SEM of six mice per group (five mice in the 5 × 105 PFU group). The disease score with 5 × 103 PFU of rNS-gCnull was 6.9, which is comparable to the score of 7.4 shown in panel A for animals inoculated with 5 × 105 PFU of NS-gCnull virus. Error bars represent ± SEM.