FIGURE 8.

Exosomes secreted by microglia during TMEV infection in mice activate bystander microglia. Exosomes were isolated from the brains of TMEV-infected mice at 2 days post-infection (three mice per group). The exosomes from the brains of TMEV-infected mice and naïve mice were sorted for CD11b⁺ and CD11b^– exosomes which were then placed on unstimulated microglia. After 24 h, the microglia were lysed, RNA isolated, converted to cDNA, and used in real time PCR with primers for IFNα (A), IFNβ (B), IL-6 (C), IL-12 (D), TNFα (E), and CCL2 (F). Significant difference was determined by the one way ANOVA and Bonferroni’s multiple comparison test (*p < 0.001) based on microglia that were incubated with exosomes secreted by microglia in naive mice. These are representative graphs from one experiment of four independent repeated experiments.