Figure 3

Human cytmegalovirus (HCMV) replication kinetics in human retinal pericytes. (A) Expression of HCMV mRNA by qRT-PCR in human retinal pericytes exposed to SBCMV-infected and heat-killed virus compared to mock infected controls. Human retinal pericytes were exposed to a human primary clinical isolate of HCMV, designated ‘SBCMV’, for 10 days. Total RNA was extracted from infected cells followed by cDNA amplification and qRT-PCR. (B) qRT-PCR was performed using mRNA from human retinal pericytes exposed to the Towne strain of HCMV after 24, 48, 72 hours and 5 days postinfection for the HCMV pp65 late protein mRNA transcripts. Fold expression was normalized to glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH). Error bars represent the standard error of the mean (SEM) on triplicate experiments.