FIG. 5.

Cholesterol decreases plaque formation of JEV and DEN-2 in BHK-21 cells. Viral plaque formation assays were performed using BHK-21 cells for JEV (A), DEN-2 (B), and SIN (C). The effect of cholesterol on viral entry was assessed by adding 50 μg/ml of cholesterol into the culture medium during viral adsorption at 37°C (middle panels). The cells were then washed and overlaid with agarose for plaque formation. The effect of cholesterol on viral replication was assessed by including cholesterol (50 μg/ml) in the agarose overlay (bottom panels). The plaques were stained with crystal violet as described in Materials and Methods.