Fig. 2: Expression of AXL and TIM-1 facilitates ZIKV infection in hTSCs.

a Relative expression levels of the putative host factors AXL, TYRO3, MERTK and TIM-1 in hTSCs, STB^TS and EVT^TS. Two-way ANOVA analysis was used for statistical analysis of significance. n = 3 independent experiments. AXL, ***, p = 0.0004. TYRO3, ****, p < 0.0001. MERTK, ****, p < 0.0001. TIM-1, **, p < 0.0064. ****, p < 0.0001. ns, no significance. b Representative immunofluorescence images for Ki67 and ZIKV E protein in ZIKV-infected WT, AXL^-/- and TIM-1^-/- hTSCs. Nuclei were stained with DAPI. WT, AXL^-/- and TIM-1^-/- hTSCs were exposed to ZIKV at an MOI of 0.1, and analyzed at 48 hours post infection. Scale bars: 100 μm. c Quantification of viral RNA in the supernatants of ZIKV-infected WT, AXL^-/- and TIM-1^-/-hTSCs at 24 and 48 hours post infection. Two-way ANOVA analysis was used for statistical analysis of significance. n = 3 independent experiments. 48 hpi, WT vs AXL^-/-, **, p = 0.0014. WT vs TIM-1^-/-, **, p = 0.0089. d Quantification of viral RNA in the supernatants of ZIKV-infected EVT^TS with DOX-inducible ectopic expression of AXL (TRE_AXL_EVT^TS, left panel) and TIM-1 (TRE_TIM-1_EVT^TS, right panel) at 24 and 48 hours post infection. EVT^TS was pretreated with 5 μM DOX for 48 hours and infected with ZIKV at an MOI of 0.1. Two-way ANOVA analysis was used for statistical analysis of significance. n = 3 independent experiments. Left panel, ***, p = 0.0009. ****, p < 0.0001. Right panel, **, p = 0.0011. ***, p = 0.0002. Data in this figure are shown as the mean ± s.d.