Restriction of H5N1 replication in endothelial cells ameliorates disease symptoms in mice.

<p>(A) C57BL/6J mice (n = 10) were intranasally infected with different doses (2, 10, and 25 PFU) of tropism restricted H5N1 viruses and monitored daily for body weight and survival. Top—Body weight loss, shown as relative percentage of day 0 weight (mean ± SEM) and Bottom–Survival. For better display, survival lines are offset by a few percentage points. (B) Viral titers in the lungs of infected mice. C57BL/6J mice (n = 6–10) were infected with 25 PFU and viral loads in the lungs on days 2, 5, and 8 pi were determined by plaque assay (PFU/mL). Each data point represents an individual mouse (mean ± SEM). Asterisk denotes statistical significance determined by one-way ANOVA in comparison to H5N1-ScrbT group and the values are denoted as *p<0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001 and ns–non significant. Data presented here is a pooled average of two independent experiments.