Timely IFN-λ production by epithelial cells drives rapid clearance of intestinal reovirus infection.

<p>Suckling wild-type, <i>Ifnar1</i>^<i>-/-</i> and <i>Ifnlr1</i>^<i>-/-</i> mice (n = 3–4) were orally infected with 5 x 10⁶ pfu of reovirus T3D, and tissue was harvested at either day 1 or day 4 post-infection. (A) Kinetics of reovirus replication by titration. (B) Expression of IFN-responsive genes <i>Isg15</i> and <i>Oasl2</i> in whole intestinal tissue analyzed by RT-qPCR. (C) Expression of <i>Ifna5</i>, <i>Ifnb</i> and <i>Ifnl2/3</i> genes in the IEC fraction of wild-type and <i>Ifnlr1</i>^<i>-/-</i> mice assessed by RT-qPCR at day 1 post-infection. (D) Immunostaining of small intestinal tissue for reovirus antigen (red), Mx1 (green) and DAPI (blue). Dotted line marks the border of villi. Bar = 50 μm. d.p.i. = days post infection. Data representative for two individual experiments are shown. Mean ± SEM. Different letters above bars mark significant differences (p<0.05). * p<0.05.