Figure 10. TNFα blocks viral replication in vitro but is not essential in vivo.

(A) BMMΦs were pre-treated for 24 h with TNFα as indicated and subsequently infected with either MCMV or MCMVdie1 (MOI 1). Total virus was measured by plaque assay at day 3 p.i. and dashed line indicates limit of detection with bars showing averages (n = 3) with SE. (B) Organs from infected C57B/6, TNFα^−/− or TNFRp55^−/− mice (2×10⁶ PFU i.p.) were harvested at 4 d p.i. and homogenated for analysis with standard plaque assay (MCMV = grey circles; MCMVdie1 = open circles). Titres were normalised per sample weight, black lines indicate median values and dashed line represents limit of detection.