Fig. 8

VZV induced and aversive response that was affected by the estrous cycle. Weekly PEAP testing was completed on cycling female rats after VZV injection. A total of 24 rats whose whisker pad was injected with MeWo cells and a total of 25 rats whose whisker pad was injected with MeWo cells infected with 650 pfu/ μl VZV were included in this experiment. Smears were completed on each day of testing and the number of animals at each cycle phase (i.e., diestrus or proestrus/estrus) was a minimum of 8 rats but that number would vary from week to week depending on the estrous cycle. Testing was performed once a week for four weeks after whisker pad injection, in panel a testing was completed 1 week after injection, in panel b 2 weeks after injection, in panel c 3 weeks after injection and in panel d 4 weeks after injection. An asterisk indicates a significant difference (p < 0.05) between the Diestrus pOka group and the Proestrus/estrus pOka group