Fig. 7

Daily dexamethasone treatment does not alleviate the HLH-like syndrome in MCMV-infected WT BALB/c mice. DEX = dexamethasone, range 1-16 mg/kg per day, starting from day 2 post infection (p.i.), indicated by color codes from blue to red for the lowest to highest dose. a Percentage change in body weight relative to initial body weight at day 0 p.i.. Median with interquartile range of 9-10 mice per experimental group. b Rectal body temperature (°C) on day 2 p.i.. Dotted line = 38.5°C (fever). c Titer of infectious virus in spleen (PFU per g spleen tissue). Plaque assay detection limit 2 PFU/organ. d-f Absolute lymphocyte, platelet and red blood cell (RBC) count in whole blood. g Percentage of hemophagocytes detected in cytospins of blood-derived WBC. h Plasma concentration of the ferritin heavy chain (ng/ml). i Plasma concentration of sCD25 (pg/ml). j Percentage of NK cells in lymph nodes (LN), gated as CD122⁺ CD49b⁺ cells of CD3^- ZombieAqua^- cells. Cells from both inguinal LN. k Plasma concentration of ALT (IU/L). l, m Percentage (left panel) and absolute number (right panel) of activated cytotoxic T cells from both inguinal lymph nodes, gated as CD69⁺ or CD25⁺ cells of CD8⁺ ZombieAqua^- cells. b-f, i-m Dots represent individual animals. g Dots represent the average of triplicate counts of 100 cells from one individual mouse. h Dots represent the average of two dilutions for one single mouse. Horizontal bars refer to median group values. h, i Dotted lines represent the lower ELISA detection limit. c-m Data were obtained on day 5 p.i.. ALT = alanine transaminase, NI = not injected, PFU = plaque-forming units, sCD25 = soluble CD25, temp. = temperature, WBC = white blood cells, WT = wild-type. * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.001; Mann-Whitney U test for single comparison, Kruskal-Wallis with Dunn’s post-test for multiple comparisons. Depicted data are from two independent experiments