Monocytes do not up-regulate Bcl-2 expression during HSV-2 infection and show significant early caspase-9 activation.

<p>(A) Representative dot plots showing cells positive for HSV-2 and/or active form of caspase-9 detected by flow cytometry at 6 and 18 h p.i. and in control uninfected cultures of monocytes and keratinocytes. (B) Percentage of HSV-2-positive cells with active caspase-9 form in HSV-2 infected monocyte RAW 264.7 and keratinocyte 291.03C cell cultures (R2 gate from panel A). (C) Percentage of uninfected cells with active caspase-9 form in HSV-2 infected monocyte and keratinocyte cell cultures (R3 gate from panel A). (D), (E) Mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) showed as histograms (left panels) and bars (right panels) for Bcl-2 (D) and Bax (E) proteins expression in the monocyte (white bars) and keratinocyte (black bars) cell cultures infected with HSV-2 at 6 and 18 hp.i., detected by intracellular staining and flow cytometry. Controls are uninfected cultures (0 h p.i.). Each bar represents the mean from 5 experiments (N = 5) ± SEM. * represents significant differences with <i>p</i>≤0.05, while ** means <i>p</i>≤0.001.