Figure 1. Vaginal HSV-1 infection leads to lower viral burden in the dorsal root ganglia compared with HSV-2 infection.

Eight-week-old C57BL/6J mice were injected with Depo-Provera and inoculated intravaginally with 1 × 10⁴ PFU HSV-1 strain McKrae or HSV-2 strain 186 syn⁺. (A) Vaginal washes were collected from mice daily after infection, and replicating virus was measured by plaque assay (HSV-1, n = 17–23; HSV-2, n = 13–22). (B) Ganglia were harvested from HSV-1– or HSV-2–infected mice at 6 days postinfection (d.p.i) (HSV-1, n = 22; HSV-2, n = 16). Dashed lines in A and B show limit of detection. Data in A and B are pooled from at least 3 independent experiments. Horizontal bars show mean, vertical lines show 95% CI. Statistical significance in A was measured by 2-way ANOVA with Bonferroni multiple comparisons test on log-transformed data. Statistical significance in B was measured by Mann-Whitney U test on log-transformed data. ****P < 0.001.