Figure 4.

Clinical pathology for diagnosis of MCMV disease. Wild-type or Rag2^−/−Il2rg^−/− male mice were intravenously infected with 10⁶ PFU MCMV and analyzed 6 dpi. (a) Experimental setup; (b) body weight curves; (c) cell counts and plasma activity of ALAT and ASAT; (d) representative HE- stained liver sections, (e) and detection of MCMV-encoded mCherry in liver cryosections stained for CD45, framed items show higher magnification of the anatomic region as indicated in the overview images, (f) viral loads determined by quantification of MCMV-encoded Gaussia luciferase activity; cryosections of livers stained for g) CD11b and (h) F4/80. (b) Median and interquartile range, (c) and (f) each data point represents one animal, green lines indicate median, dotted lines indicate upper and lower limits of wild-type reference intervals as depicted in Tables 1 and 2, (f) blue line indicates detection limit of the assay. Scale bars: (d) 500 µm and 50 µm for low and high magnification, respectively; (e) 200 µm and 50 µm for low and high magnification, respectively. (g) and (h) 50 µm. Data was pooled from n = 5–6 animals per group, analyzed in two independent experiments, dpi = days post infection, RLU = relative light units. Stars indicate statistical significance.