Fig.2: Obese C3H/HeJ mice exposed to MHV-1 have worse disease outcomes compared to C57BL/6N mice.
(A) Experimental design. Lean and obese C57BL/6N (n=20-25) and C3H/HeJ (n=15-20) mice were intranasally inoculated with 3x104 PFUs of MHV-1 at 18-weeks-post-diet-initiation (day 0). The mice were bled at 2 dpi and monitored for signs of illness, weight loss and mortality until 8 dpi. At 8 dpi, the remaining mice were euthanized, and tissues were collected for histopathology. (B & C) Weight changes in lean and obese C57BL/6N (B) and C3H/HeJ (C) mice.Weights were measured daily, and statistical analysis was done on baseline corrected weights using mixed effects analysis with Sidak’s multiple comparisons test. (D & E) Survival rates in lean and obese C57BL/6N (D) and C3H/HeJ (E) mice. Infected lean and obese mice were monitored until 8 dpi. Mortality was recorded if a mouse succumbed to infection or reached criteria for humane euthanasia (20% weight loss compared to weights at 0 dpi). Statistical analysis was done using Log-rank (Mantel-Cox) test. The level of significance is represented as follows: p < 0.05 (*); p < 0.001 (**); p = 0.001 to 0.0001 (***); p < 0.0001 (****). The error bars indicate standard deviation (SD) of the mean. The studies were carried out as two independent replicates each for C3H/HeJ and C57BL/6N mice.