Fig 11. Induction of mechanical and thermal hypersensitivity by VZV with conditionally stabilized IE63 or by VZV lacking the production of the ORF54 portal protein.

Male Sprague-Dawley rats (n = 6/group) were inoculated with 2x10⁵ PFU pOka (blue circle), VZV ORF63cDHFR with 500 nM TMP (green triangle) or without TMP (purple triangle), VZV Δ54S (yellow diamond), or uninfected cell equivalents (red square) and subjected to the same testing methods in Fig 6. (A) Mechanical hypersensitivity of inoculated footpad (top) vs contralateral (bottom). (B) The same group of rats were tested for thermal hypersensitivity of inoculated footpad (top) vs contralateral (bottom). Error bars: SD. Statistics: Two-way ANOVA with Bonferroni multiple comparison to TRPE negative control where *p < .05. Note: The uninfected cell equivalents (red square) in this figure represent inoculated rats n = 3 A54 cells and n = 3 TRPE cells. This data has been combined for clarity and was deemed appropriate as the cell lines are from a common lineage.