Fig. 1.

HEV-1 replicates efficiently in decidual and placental tissues. a, b Kinetics of HEV virus production from explants established from the decidua a and placenta b, infected with HEV-1 (red), or HEV-3 (cyan). RNA levels were measured in tissue culture supernatants by RT-qPCR. c, d Histological analyses of tissue sections stained by HEV in situ hybridization (ISH) and prepared from mock, HEV-1, or HEV-3 infected explants 5 days post infection. c Representative field of view of explant material derived from the decidua (upper panel) and placenta (lower panel). Arrowheads point to HEV positive cells (in brown) and boxes represent enlarged areas with characteristic staining patterns. Scale bar, 20 µm. d Bar graph illustrating the number of HEV positive cells per cm² of tissue determined by ISH staining in HEV-1 (red) or HEV-3 (cyan) infected tissue explants. Data represent mean values ± S.E.M. of six independent donors. * denotes a statistical comparison between HEV-1 and HEV-3 infected tissues. *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001 by two-way ANOVA with Bonferroni post hoc test a, b and paired t-test d