Figure 1. Proinflammatory cytokine and chemokine responses in the liver of SFTSV-infected mice.

Mouse infection was conducted at a biosafety level 3 (BSL3) containment in accordance with institutional guidelines. C57/BL6 mice (n = 10) were i.m. inoculated with 10⁵ TCID₅₀ SFTSV. Five mice were inoculated with saline and used as parallel controls. At each time point, rectal temperature and weight were measured before the mice were euthanized and liver tissues collected as previously described¹⁷. Total RNA was extracted after the tissue was ground, and real-time RT-PCR reactions were performed to measure transcript levels of cytokines with specific primers. Fold change for mRNA transcript levels are shown for IL-6 (A), IL-8 (B), RANTES (C), and IP-10 (D), and samples were tested in triplicates.