Figure 5. Effect of topical dexamethasone treatment on LAT gene expression.

Mouse corneas were infected with 10³ PFU HSV-1, or left UI as controls. Starting at 2 h p.i., mice were topically treated with DEX or VEH onto their corneas for 8 d p.i. before TG collection at 30 d p.i. TGs were harvested and processed for RNA isolation, followed by cDNA synthesis and real-time quantitative PCR analysis of genes associated with HSV-1 lytic infection (gB, TK, and ICP27) and latent infection (LAT). Although no detection of product was observed for lytic-infection genes in either group (data not shown), the expression of LAT was not significantly different between groups. Results are expressed as fold change LAT transcript expression means ± sem (n = 5–6 replicates for each group from 2 independent experiments) by unpaired t test comparison.