Figure 6.

MCMV infection and inflammation is exacerbated in the HSCT environment. (A) Comparison of resting and HSCT mice, with and without MCMV infection (2 × 10³ PFU MCMV). The HSCT mice were challenged on post-HSCT day 8. (B-D) Serum proinflammatory cytokines in resting or HSCT mice, with and without MCMV challenge on post-infection day 7. Expression of KLRG1 (E) and KLRG1 (F) MFI on resting and HSCT NK cells at post-infection day 7. (G) Frequency of Ly49H-expressing NK cells in the liver of infected resting and HSCT mice at post-infection day 7. (H) Absolute number of licensed and unlicensed NK-cell subsets in the LN or (I) liver of C57BL/6 mice on post-MCMV infection day 7 in HSCT mice. (J) Viral loads in livers of C57BL/6 HSCT mice at post-LD MCMV infection day 7 determined by qPCR of the IE1 gene copy number per 100 mg of tissue. Frequency (K) and absolute number (L) of splenic CD3⁺ T cells in resting vs post-HSCT day 15 mice. Means ± standard error of the mean are shown for 3 or 4 mice per group representative of 2 experiments. *P < .05; **P < .01; ***P < .001, by 1-way ANOVA with Tukey post hoc test.