Fig. 2

VZV induced peripheral retraction of PGP9.5 positive neurites in the skin of the whisker pad. At six weeks after whisker pad injection with either MeWo cells (a) or MeWo cells containing VZV (b) male Sprague Dawley rats from the first study were sacrificed and the whisker pad skin processed for analyses. Ten 20 μm coronal sections were cut from each injected whisker pad. Representative images for MeWo injected (a) and pOka injected (b) rats are shown after staining with the PGP9.5 antibody (red), cell nuclei are stained blue. The border between the stratum basale and dermis is shown as a white dotted line. Arrows point to PGP9.5 positive filaments. Asterisk above the arrow indicates enlarged region within box. Bar = 50 μm. In panel c, each data point on the histogram shows the average number of PGP9.5 positive neurites per mm that terminate above or cross the basale/dermis border for each section. There were ten sections per rat and three rats per treatment group. An asterisk indicates p < 0.05. Mean and SEM are shown