FIG. 7.

Effect of IFN-α on IRF mRNA levels in mixed glial cell cultures. (A) Glial cells were prepared from the cerebral cortex of WT, STAT1 KO (ST1), or STAT2 KO (ST2) neonatal mice, and confluent cultures were incubated with 1,000 U/ml IFN-α for 2, 6, and 12 h as described in Materials and Methods. Total RNA was isolated with TRIZOL reagent, and 10 μg RNA was analyzed by RPA as outlined in Materials and Methods. (A) In glia treated with IFN-α, IRF-7 mRNA transcript showed a significant (P < 0.05) increase by 2 h in WT and at 12 h in STAT1 KO cells but was unchanged in STAT2 KO cells. For IRF-9 mRNA transcript, no significant increase was evident in glial cells following IFN-α stimulation. (B) Quantification of IRF-7 and IRF-9 gene expression. Densitometric analysis of each lane was performed on scanned autoradiographs using NIH Image software (version 1.31).