Figure 3. Differential autonomous antiviral response determines the outcome of infection in pancreatic α cells and β cells.

a | and b | Viral protein expression in human islet cells infected by coxsackievirus B5 serotype (CVB5) for 8 h. Immunocytochemistry labelling of VP1 (red), insulin (green), glucagon (light blue) and nuclei (dark blue) indicates expression of the viral protein at an early time point of infection in both insulin-producing-β cells (part a) and glucagon-producing-α cells (part b). Scale bar, 1 μm. c | Time course of CVB5 proliferation versus expression of antiviral response genes in rat α cells and β cells⁶⁸. Purified rat α cells and β cells were infected with CVB5 and examined at 1, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 24 h after infection. The mRNA expression levels of antiviral genes (Stat1 and Mx1) and viral genes (VP1) are shown. Basal expression of antiviral genes is higher in α cells than in β cells and rapidly increases, which enables this cell type to eradicate the viral infection and survive. By contrast, β cells exhibit lower and less effective antiviral responses than α cells, which enables the viral load to increase and eventually kill the infected cells.