Fig. 2

Spleen viral titers are not correlated with the severity of HLH-like symptoms. a Comparison of spleen viral titer (PFU/g) in different mouse strains on day 2 post infection (p.i.) and b day 5 p.i.. c Titer of infectious virus in spleen, lung, liver and kidney (PFU per g organ tissue) of WT BALB/c mice on day 5 p.i.. d-m Correlation analysis between the infectious viral titer in spleen (PFU/g) on day 5 p.i. and d percentage change in body weight relative to body weight at day 0 p.i., e rectal body temperature (°C) on day 2 p.i., f-h absolute lymphocyte, platelet and red blood cell (RBC) count in whole blood, plasma concentration of i ferritin heavy chain (ng/ml) and j sCD25 (pg/ml), k percentage of NK cells in lungs, gated as CD122⁺CD49b⁺CD3^-ZombieAqua^- cells, l plasma concentration of ALT (IU/L) and m total cell number of inguinal lymph nodes. a-m Dots represent individual animals. Outliers are depicted with a triangle ▲. Horizontal bars refer to median group values. d, f-m Data obtained on day 5 p.i.. a-c Depicted data are from 1-3 experiments and representative of >5 or d-m 8 independent experiments with >5 mice per experimental group. d, f-j, l-m Data from 1 experiment with 25 BALB/c MCMV mice. e, k Data from 1 experiment with 20 and 15 BALB/c MCMV mice, respectively. a-m Detection limit of the plaque assay is 2 PFU/organ, represented by grey boxes or a dotted line. i, j Lower ELISA detection limits are indicated with a dotted line. ALT = alanine transaminase, KO = knockout, LN = lymph node, NK = natural killer, PFU = plaque-forming units, r = Spearman correlation coefficient, sCD25 = soluble CD25, temp. = temperature, WT = wild-type. p > 0.05; ** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.001; Kruskal-Wallis with Dunn’s post-test for multiple comparisons, Spearman test for correlation analysis