HSV-2 specifically down regulates HLA-C expression.

<p>(A) 721.221 (221) cells expressing various HLA proteins (indicated in the histograms) were infected with HSV-2 (MOI of 0.5) and the levels of the various HLA proteins expression were determined by FACS (black empty histograms represents the staining of infected cells). (B) Two clinical isolates of HSV-2 (HSV2 Iso 2 and HSV2 Iso 3) and one clinical isolate of HSV-1 were used to infect the various 721.221 transfectants indicated in the figures (MOI of 0.5 for all infections) and the levels of the HLA expression were measured FACS (black empty histograms represent the infected cell staining). (C) 221 expressing HLA-B73 or HLA-Cw6 cells were infected with HSV-2 (MOI of 1) and HLA expression was assessed right at the end of the infection, and at the indicated time points post infection (pi). In A–C the dark gray shaded histograms represent staining of the corresponding uninfected cells and the background levels (light grey shaded histogram) are the APC-conjugated Abs. For all panels, one representative experiment is shown out of at least three performed. (D) Quantification of all experiments performed in (A). The expression of each HLA allele without infection was set up to be 100%. Shown are relative average MFI ± S.D. from four to eight independent experiments.