Fig. 6.

Primary decidual and placental stromal cells are targets of HEV-1 infection at the maternal-fetal interface. a, b Kinetics of viral RNA production in stromal cells derived from the a decidua or b placenta, infected with either HEV-1 (red) or HEV-3 (cyan). Virus production was determined by RT-qPCR in culture supernatants. c Representative images of stromal cells derived from the decidua (upper panel) or placenta (lower panel), 7 days after mock, HEV-1, or HEV-3 infection. 3D-reconstituted maximum intensity projections are shown, generated using the Imaris software. Staining indicates the ORF2 viral capsid protein (green), vimentin (red), and nuclei (blue). Scale bar, 20 µm. d Bar graph illustrating the percentage of infected stromal cells derived from the decidua or placenta 7 days after HEV-1 (red) or HEV-3 (cyan) infection and determined by ORF2 staining. Data represent mean values ± S.E.M. of six independent donors. * denotes a statistical comparison made between HEV-1 and HEV-3 infected cells. *P < 0.05; ***P < 0.001 by two-way ANOVA with Bonferroni post hoc test a, b and paired t-test d