Fig. 2

IFN-α inhibits VZV gene expression. Expression of selected VZV genes representing immediate-early (a), early (b) and late (c) genes in untreated or IFN-α treated HELFs at 12 and 24 h after incubation with VZV infected cells was measured by quantitative real-time PCR. Expression of each gene at 12 and 24 h was normalized to the expression of Gapdh. The levels of expression were calculated by fold increase compared to the corresponding gene expressed in cells at 0 h in which cells were harvested immediately after inoculation with VZV infected cells. Each bar represents the mean ± SEM of triplicate measurements from one representative of two independent experiments. The difference in expression of each gene expressed in untreated and IFN-α treated cells at 12 or 24 h was compared by Student’s t test. d Virus yields from untreated cells or cells treated with varying concentrations of IFN-α were evaluated by infectious focus assay at 24 h post infection. Each bar represents the mean ± SEM of triplicate titrations from three independent experiments (unpaired Student’s t test). (**p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001; not significant (n.s.), p > 0.05)