Fig. 4

Neutralization of MCMV with polyclonal antibodies inhibits development of fulminant HLH in WT BALB/c mice. a Percentage change in body weight relative to initial body weight at day 0 post infection (p.i.). Median with interquartile range of 3-5 mice per experimental group. b Rectal body temperature (°C) on day 2 p.i. Dotted line = 38.5°C (fever). c-e Absolute lymphocyte, platelet and red blood cell (RBC) count in whole blood. f Plasma concentration of the ferritin heavy chain (ng/ml). Dots represent the average of two dilutions for one single mouse. Dotted line represent the lower ELISA detection limit. g Titer of infectious virus in spleen (PFU per g spleen tissue). b-g Data were obtained on day 5 p.i.. Dots represent individual animals. / = MCMV without prior incubation, IgG = MCMV incubated 1h with isotype control antibodies, Neutra = MCMV incubated 1h with anti-MCMV neutralizing antibodies as described in M&M, NI = not infected, RBC = red blood cells, temp. = temperature. ○ = open dots in the ‘Neutra’ group indicate mice in which neutralization was not completely efficient. * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01; Kruskal-Wallis with Dunn’s post-test for multiple comparisons. Depicted data are from one experiment