Hepatitis C virus induces oxidation and degradation of apolipoprotein B to enhance lipid accumulation and promote viral production
Fig 9
Expression of ApoB-50 decreased lipid accumulation and inhibited HCV production.
(A) Huh-7 cells were infected with HCV (MOI = 1) for 2 days prior to transduction with ApoB-50 for 2 days. The protein levels of ApoB and the core were analyzed by western blotting. Actin was used as the loading control. (B) Immunostaining was performed in cells in A with antibodies against ApoB and core. LDs were stained with BODIPY 493/503. Nuclei were stained with DAPI. Fluorescence signals were visualized by laser confocal microscopy. The arrow indicates an HCV-infected cell. The arrowhead indicates an HCV-infected cell transduced with ApoB-50. Scale bars, 10 μM. (C and D) The intracellular and extracellular TG concentrations in cells in A were analyzed using a TG quantification kit. TG, triglyceride. (E-G) Cell lysates and culture supernatants from HCV-infected cells were collected to infect Huh-7 cells. In-cell western blot analysis and viral titration assays were performed. (H) The intracellular HCV RNA level was analyzed by real-time PCR. GAPDH was used as the internal control. The statistical significance was determined by unpaired two-tailed Student’s t-tests. The data are shown as the means ± SDs of n = 3 biological repeats. n.s., not significant. ** P < 0.01.