Fig. 1.

Impact of perforin gene dosage on neuroinflammation and virus load during acute TMEV infection. a TMEV-infected perforin−/−, perforin+/−, and perforin+/+ mouse brains were harvested to assess CNS immune profile and viral load. Brain infiltrating lymphocytes were isolated, stained, and analyzed using flow cytometry. Absolute number and frequency as a percentage of CD45hi cells is reported for b, c CD4 T cell, d, e CD8 T cells, f, g virus-specific CD8 T cells, and h, i natural killer cells. j Whole RNA was also extracted from the brain to assess viral load via qRT-PCR. Mouse groups are as follows: n = 3 perforin−/− mice and n = 5 perforin+/− mice and perforin+/+ mice for flow cytometry and n = 3 perforin−/− mice, n = 5 perforin+/− mice, and n = 4 perforin+/+ mice for viral control. Three independent experiments were done. A representative experiment is shown. Significance was determined using a one-way ANOVA with a Tukey post hoc test. p < 0.05 considered statistically significant