Figure 2.

Effects of dengue virus 2 (DV2) infection upon epidermal dendritic Langerhans cells (LC). Monoclonal antibodies to MHC-CII (DR), CD1a and Langerin were used to assess epidermal LC. (a) Far left panel (top to bottom pictures) shows epidermal sheets from freshly obtained skin; middle left panel (top to bottom) represents non-inoculated cultured explants; middle right panel (top to bottom) represents mock-infected explants; far right panel (top to bottom) illustrates DV-inoculated skin explants. Pictures were taken at 5 days of culture and are representative examples of five different skin samples evaluated. (b) MHC-CII, CD1a and Langerin were used as markers to quantify LC frequency per area in each of these different experimental conditions. Closed bars indicate LC frequency in epidermal sheets from freshly (non-cultured, non-infected) obtained skin; open bars indicate LC in cultured non-infected skin; grey bars illustrate LC in mock-infected explants; squared bars indicate LC in DV-infected skin explants. Results are expressed as the mean ± SD of five different experiments from skin samples obtained from five individuals. Statistically significant differences are indicated by asterisks (***P < 0.001).