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. 2012 Jul 30;2:545. doi: 10.1038/srep00545

Figure 3. Viral tropism does not explain the protection of CA1 neurons in SJL mice.

Figure 3

Serial hippocampal sections from B6 (A, C, E, G) and SJL mice (B, D, F, H) were immunostained for the presence of virus (A, B, E, F) or were histologically stained with hematoxylin and eosin (C, D, G, H) at 3 dpi. This timepoint was chosen to represent the peak of viral replication in the CNS. Inspection of the low magnification pattern of anti-TMEV immunostaining reveals no difference in the tropism of the virus between strains (A, B). At higher magnification it is evident that SJL neurons are robustly infected (F) but have not experienced the same overt injury apparent in B6 mice (E). CA1 neurons in SJL mice exhibit normal apical dendrites (arrowhead in F and H) despite the presence of virus antigen extending throughout these dendrites. In contrast, CA1 neurons in B6 mice have already lost these dendrites by 3 dpi (E, G). The scale bar in D is 500 μm and refers to A–C. The scale bar in H is 50 μm and refers to E–G. Sections are representative of at least 3 mice per group in 3 separate experiments.