Inflammatory responses following MCMV infection of neonatal and adult Eμ-ret mice. (A) Flow cytometry–based quantification of 15 proinflammatory/inflammatory cytokines and chemokines that were significantly higher in the serum of MCMV-infected pups (1-week-old) compared with adult (4-week-old) Eμ-ret mice at 3, 6, or 10 dpi (2-way ANOVA; comparison between PBS-injected [Ctrl] and infected [CMV] conditions within each group have been shown; n = 3-5). (B) Heat map depicting the inflammatory response. Normalized means (averaged from 3-5 samples per group) calculated for each cytokine by taking smallest mean as 0% and largest mean as 100%. (C) Representative bioluminescence images of Eμ-ret pups at 3, 6, and 10 days after infection with luciferase-tagged MCMV in the presence of the indicated neutralizing antibodies. (D) PLC burden in the spleen of PBS (Ctrl) and virus (MCMV)-infected Eμ-ret pups also injected with the indicated neutralizing antibodies (1-way ANOVA; n = 3-5). (E) ELISA-based quantification of p40 and flow cytometry–based quantification of IFN-γ, and TNF-α in sera from control and MCMV-infected wild-type (R/wt), Stat4^–/– (R/Stat4), IFN-γ–neutralized, and p40–neutralized Eμ-ret mice at 6 dpi (2-way ANOVA; followed by Tukey test; n = 3-4). For the simplicity of graphs, comparisons between MCMV-infected groups are shown. All data are presented as mean ± SEM. ∗P < .05; ∗∗ P < .01; ∗∗∗P < .001; ∗∗∗∗P < .0001 (nonsignificant comparisons are not labeled).