Figure 6. Expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines in the CNS compartments of EV71-infected mice.

After a 7 d challenge of hSCARB2-Tg and non-Tg mice with 3×10⁴ pfu of 5746 s.c., RNA was extracted from the brainstem (A) and spinal cord (B) and quantitative RT-PCR analysis was conducted to quantify CXCL10, CCL3, TNF-α, and IL-10 genes. hSCARB2-Tg mice that received no EV71 were set as the negative control. The number of PCR cycles required for fluorescent detection of target genes was calculated and presented as the relative expression after normalization with the internal control of β-actin expression from the same tissue. A schematic representation of the target gene expression and the statistical average from 7 mice per group is shown. Unpaired student t test with Welch’s correction was used for statistical analysis.