Overexpression of iIFN1a and iIFN1b in RTG-2 cells enhances resistance to viral infection.

<p>(A) Fluorescent microscopic images of GFP positive cells after transfection with ptGFP1-sIFN1, ptGFP1-iIFN1a or ptGFP1-iIFN1b. (B, C) Confirmation of overexpression of IFN genes in transfected RTG-2 by real time PCR and Western blotting using an antiserum to iIFN1b. (D) The impact on Mx expression of overexpression of IFN1 variants in RTG-2 cells. (E, F) The impact of overexpression of IFN1 variants on antiviral resistance of transfected cells following infection with VHSV. Cells overexpressing the IFN1 variants were infected with serial dilutions of virus (left hand wells) and compared with cells transfected with empty vector (ptGFP1) and uninfected cells (right hand wells) as controls. The cytopathic effect was visualized after staining with crystal violet (E) and subsequent spectrophotometric analysis (F). Note: no obvious cell lysis was observed for the cells transfected with ptGFP1-iIFN1b although they were lightly stained.