title: Glial fibrillary acidic protein expression during HSV-1 infection in mouse cornea.
abstract: This study aimed to investigate the dynamic expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), a common neural factor, in cornea and stromal cells during herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV-1) infection. For each anesthetized BALB/c mouse, the cornea in one eye was inoculated with 1 × 10(5) plaque forming unit (PFU) of HSV-1, while the contralateral cornea was mock-infected as the control. At different timepoints post-infection, corneal lesion examination by slit-lamp biomicroscopy, corneal histology and HSV-1 DNA detection by real-time PCR were performed to estimate the different stage of HSV-1 infection. The expression of GFAP was examined using real-time PCR, western blotting and immunofluorescence staining. After infected with HSV-1 for 15 days, the mouse corneas began to become clear, the corneal pathology recovered to normal, and HSV-1 DNA almost could not be detected, indicating that HSV-1 was entering a relative quiescent state from the acute infection. The expression of GFAP in HSV-1-infected corneas was comparatively low on day 3, increased slightly on day 7, and further increased thereafter, higher than that in mock-infected corneas on day 15. GFAP detection on the cellular level also indicated that the expression was downregulated in acute HSV-1 infection. GFAP was found to be downregulated in HSV-1 acute infection in cornea and upregulated in late stage, suggesting that GFAP might play some role during HSV-1 infection in cornea.
authors.affiliation: Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Shandong Provincial Excellent Innovation Team Program, Shandong Eye Institute, Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, Qingdao, China.
authors.forename: Ge
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Zicheng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Hongmei
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.forename: Yuanyuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003315:Cornea / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology*; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000302:isolation & purification; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005136:Eye Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D005904:Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D018259:Herpesvirus 1, Human / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D016849:Keratitis, Herpetic / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology* / Q000821:virology; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017154:Stromal Cells; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral; D005136:Eye Proteins; D005904:Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta
keywords: Glial fibrillary acidic protein; HSV-1; cornea; infection