Fig. 5.

MHV-A59 infection reduced Cx43 expression at cell surface and retained Cx43 in the perinuclear region of infected primary meningeal fibroblasts (a–l) Double-immunolabeling for Cx43 (green) and vimentin or viral nucleocapsid (red) showing punctate staining of Cx43 mostly at the cell surface of mock-infected vimentin-positive primary meningeal fibroblasts (a–c, g–i). Virus-infected and vimentive-positive fibroblasts show a predominant intracellular localization of Cx43 (d–f, j–l; arrows). Note the colocalization of Cx43 with viral nucleocapsid in infected cells (f: arrow) surrounding the nucleus. Perinuclear distribution of Cx43 in MHV-A59-infected cultures is also evident in vimentin-positive meningeal fibroblasts (l: arrow). Insets depict magnified view showing Cx43 perinuclear staining in infected (f, l) cells and characteristic punctate cell surface localization in mock-infected controls (c, i). Cells were counterstained with DAPI (blue) to visualize nuclear localization in merged images