Figure 2.
Organ tropism of SC35 and SC35M in mice. Groups of five mice were infected with 106 PFU of recombinant virus. Virus titers were determined in lung, brain, heart, liver, kidney, spleen, and gut homogenates 3 days p.i. by plaque assay. Error bars indicate SD of independent experiments (A). In situ hybridization of all organs from SC35 virus-infected mice reveal virus RNA only in single alveolar cells at 3 and 6 days p.i. SC35M virus-infected mice reveal virus replication in numerous epithelial alveolar cells at days 3 and 6 p.i., and interstitial pneumonia at day 6 p.i. In addition, SC35M virus RNA was also detected in temporal lobes of the brain at day 6 p.i. Hearts or other organs were neither found to be infected with SC35 nor with SC35M virus (B).