Fig. 3

IFN-α affects the size and morphology of IE62-expressing replication compartments. a Three representative cells from confocal microscopy images illustrate small punctate (<3.2 μm²), large punctate (3.2–16 μm²) or large globular pattern (>16 μm²) based on IE62 staining. Scale bar 5 μm. b Untreated or IFN-α treated HELF cell monolayers at 12 and 24 h post VZV infection were stained with anti-IE62 antibody. Shown are two representative fields from microscopic confocal images and illustrate that IFN-α treatment inhibits the progression of large globular replication compartments compared with untreated cell monolayer. Scale bar 10 μm. c Confocal microscopic images from 20 fields of IE62 stained cell monolayers from two independent experiments were analyzed for the size and morphology of IE62-expressing replication compartments. 30–90 untreated and IFN-α treated cells at 12 or 24 h post VZV inoculation were analyzed. Each bar represents the mean percentage of total cells, which were uninfected, or IE62 positive cells expressing small, large or large globular morphology. Differences in IE62 expression between untreated and IFN-α treated cells were tested by unpaired Student’s t test