FIG. 6.

Cumulative spontaneous reactivation of LAT2.5A and LAT1.8A. Rabbits were ocularly infected with dLAT2903, dLAT2903R, LAT3.3A, LAT1.8A, or LAT2.5A. Beginning on day 30 postinfection (p.i.) (day 1 of tear film collection), at which time latency had been established, tear films were collected daily for 26 days. These samples were then plated on RS cell monolayers and observed for the presence of CPE, which is indicative of spontaneously reactivated virus in the tears. Positive cultures were passaged, and DNA was analyzed. Southern analysis confirmed that the CPE was due to HSV-1 and that the mutant spontaneously reactivated viruses retained their deletions. The y axis represents the cumulative number of HSV-1-positive cultures for each virus group divided by the number of eyes in the group. Panels A and B show results from separate experiments. Statistical analyses are shown in Table 1.