Table 2.
Immunity to vaginal challenge 11 weeks after immunization with attenuated herpes simplex virus type‐2 (HSV‐2)
| Infection of vaginal epithelium at 20hr | Log3 GMT and GMT of shed virus protein in vagina | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Site of immunization | No. of mice* | % (mean±SEM)† | 20 hr‡ | 48 hr§ | Illness score |
| None | 9/9 | 3.9±1.1 | 6.7±0.3 | 7.8±0.1 | 3.0¶ |
| (1,600) | (5,300) | ||||
| Vaginal‐DP | 4/10 | 0.11±0.06 | 2.0±0.3 | 2.3±0.4 | 0.0** |
| (9.0) | (13) | ||||
| Vaginal‐E‐scar | 7/10 | 0.36±0.14 | 3.8±0.3 | 4.3±0.5 | 0.0 |
| (65) | (110) | ||||
| Nasal | 8/10 | 0.70±0.25 | 4.4±0.4 | 5.5±0.4 | 0.0 |
| (130) | (420) | ||||
Infection was identified by immunostaining of HSV‐2 proteins in equivalent total lengths of vaginal epithelium in four independent sections from each mouse.
The percentage of vaginal epithelium that was HSV‐2 infected was significantly different in the three immunized groups (P = 0.0003, Kruskal–Wallis non‐parametric analysis of variance ANOVA).
The log3 GMT titre in the vaginal‐DP group was significantly lower than in the other immunized groups (P < 0.001; three‐group ANOVA), whereas the log3 GMT in the vaginal‐scar and nasal groups were not significantly different (P = 0.27; two‐tailed t‐test).
The log3 GMT in the vaginal‐DP group was significantly lower than in the other immunized groups (P < 0.001; three‐group ANOVA), whereas the log3 GMT in the vaginal‐scar and nasal gruops were not significantly different (P = 0.080; two‐tailed t‐test).
All mice died or became so ill that euthanasia was desirable by 9 days after challenge.
Mice never showed any signs of illness (7).7