FIG 6.

Reduction of Cx43 protein expression due to MHV-A59 infection. Primary astrocytes were either mock infected or infected with MHV-A59, and total protein was extracted at 24 h p.i. Protein (5 μg) was resolved in SDS-PAGE, transferred to a PVDF membrane, and immunoprobed. (A) Upon infection with MHV-A59, whole-cell Cx43 protein levels were decreased compared to those of mock-infected cells. The internal loading control γ-actin showed similar signal intensity for all experiments. (B) Densitometric analysis showed that there was a 36.3% ± 3.3% (at an MOI of 2) and 40.8% ± 6.8% (at an MOI of 5) reduction in total Cx43 for MHV-infected cells compared to the level for mock-infected control cells. The total proteins isolated from primary astrocytes also were probed for GFAP, but expression was found to be similar in all experimental groups. The mean ± SEM incidences of six experimental replicates from three different experiments are shown (****, P < 0.0001).