FIGURE 9.

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