Fig. 1

The VZV marker IE62 was expressed in neurons of the trigeminal ganglia after injecting the whisker pad with virus. Sprague Dawley rats from the second study were injected with 100 μl of 1900 pfu/ μl VZV and tissues were collected 8 weeks following injection. Immunofluorescent detection of IE62 (red) and the neuronal marker NeuN (green) was completed on fixed frozen sections. Blue was nuclear Hoeschst stain. A sagittal section of the trigeminal ganglia is shown in panel a (low magnification) and in b (high magnification). In panel a the boxed area within the cartoon shows the stained region of the trigeminal ganglia. Yellow cells co-labeled with IE62 and NeuN in panel a are indicated by arrowheads. The branches of the trigeminal ganglia are labeled V1, V2 and V3. The V3 border is represented by a dotted line. In panel b, co-localization of NeuN and IE62 was shown in yellow and cells were indicated by arrows. Bar equals 50 μm. Panel c shows the total number of NeuN and double stained NeuN and IE62 positive cells in the trigeminal ganglia. Panel d, the percent of NeuN/IE62 double labeled cells in the total NeuN positive population was calculated for the neurons in different regions of the trigeminal ganglia. Small neurons were <23 μm in diameter, medium-sized neurons were 23–32 μm in diameter and large neurons were >32 μm in diameter. An asterisk indicates p < 0.05, n = 6. Values shown are the mean and SEM