Neuroepithelial infection is HS-dependent.

<p>Adult C57BL/6 mice were allowed to inhale either wild-type, gL⁻gp70⁻ or gL⁻gp70⁻gp150⁻ virions in 5 µl. As gL⁻gp70⁻ MuHV-4 plaques poorly, the wild-type virus was titrated by plaque assay and all other virus stocks normalized to this by immunoblotting with MuHV-4-specific mAbs (Fig.S2). Groups of 8 mice were then exposed to virus and 1 month later scored as infected or not based on ELISA for virus-specific serum IgG. At 10¹ and 10² p.f.u. equivalents, gL⁻gp70⁻ MuHV-4 infected significantly fewer mice than either the wild-type or the HS-independent triple mutant (p<0.03 by 2-tailed Fisher's exact test). The graph on the right illustrates ELISA results for 3 mice per group from the 10² p.f.u. equivalent dose, plus 3 naive controls. Note that the one mouse infected with gL⁻gp70⁻ virus shows an antibody response comparable to those infected with wild-type virus.