Figure 4. Consequences of dexamethasone treatment during the first 8 d of HSV-1 infection on viral titers.

Mouse corneas were infected with 10³ PFU HSV-1. Starting at 2 h p.i., mice were topically treated with DEX or VEH onto their corneas for 8 d before tissue harvest and processing for plaque assay. Bars show means ± sem of viral titer in cornea (A), TG (B), and BS (C) at 9, 10, and 12 d p.i. N.D, viral plaques not detected by the assay. (n = 6 per HSV-1⁺ VEH group; and n = 3–4 per HSV-1⁺ DEX group for cornea and TG at 9 d p.i., n = 3–4 per group for BS at 9 and 12 d p.i., and n = 6–8 per group for cornea, TG, and BS at 10 d p.i., from 2–3 independent experiments. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 by unpaired t test comparison.