Relationship of IFN-α responses and viral RNA.

aRNA was extracted from VRPΔErns-infected (MOI 5 TCID50/cell, 24 h) SK-6 cells before co-culture. bRNA was extracted from re-sorted enriched pDC (>99% CD172a+) treated with mock or infected withVRPΔErns (MOI 5 TCID50/cell, 22 h). cRNA was extracted from re-sorted enriched pDC co-cultured with VRPΔErns-infected SK-6 cells. SK-6 cells or enriched pDC were infected with VRPΔErns at an MOI 5 TCID50/cell and IFN-α in supernatants and viral RNA quantified after 24 h. In the last row, SK-6 cells infected with VRPΔErns-infected for 24 h were co-cultured with enriched pDC for further 22 h before IFN-α and viral RNA quantification. The latter used CD172a-re-sorted enriched pDC to remove contaminating SK-6 cells.