FIG. 3.

Characterization of VZV reporter cell line MV9G. (A) Time-dependent activation of the reporter cell line after VZV infection. MV9G cells in 96-well plates were infected with 60 and 600 PFU of VZV and incubated for 2 h. After removal of the inoculums, cells were cultured for the indicated period (in hours), rinsed with phosphate-buffered saline, and stored at −80°C until luciferase activity was measured. Means and SDs of luciferase activities from triplicate wells are shown. (B) MV9G cells were infected with the indicated PFU of VZV and incubated for 2 h. After removal of the inoculums, the cells were cultured for an additional 46 h. Means and SDs of luciferase activities from triplicate wells are shown. (C) MV9G cells were infected with cell-associated virus, and their luciferase activities were measured 2 days later. MeWo cells were infected with the same cell-associated virus, and the numbers of the infected cells used for the inoculation were obtained by immunostaining using anti-VZV IE62 monoclonal antibody (MAb8616; Chemicon International). The luciferase activities were compared with the numbers of the infected cells.