Fig. 9: Maternal antibodies are indispensable for mother-to-child transmitted protection.

Female C57BL/6 and C57BL/6^JHT/JHT (JHT) mice were vaccinated with UV-irradiated ΔM27-MCMV (ΔM27-UV), ΔM27-MCMV (ΔM27) or mock vaccinated (control). At 2 weeks post vaccination, C57BL/6 female mice were mated with C57BL/6^JHT/JHT males and C57BL/6^JHT/JHT female mice with C57BL/6 males. To analyze the protection of the offspring, at ~24 h postpartum, newborns were challenged i. p. with 500 PFU of MCMV:eGFP per mouse. At 9 d post challenge, the indicated organs were harvested and virus titers were determined by plaque titration. wt and JHT indicate the genotype of dams. a Schema of the experimental design. b Virus titers of brains of pups. c Virus titers of lungs of pups. d Virus titers of livers of pups. e Virus titers of spleens of pups. f Virus titers of the salivary gland of pups. Bars depict the geometric mean, dots show titers of individual mice (n = 4–8 per group). DL detection limit. All vaccinated groups were compared to the corresponding control group by Kruskal–Wallis test corrected for multiple comparisons by controlling the false discovery rate. *p value <0.05. **p value <0.01. ***p value <0.001.