Fig 4.

Effect of NTCP mutation on HBV-infected HPCs. Differentiated podocytes were transfected with MUT-NTCP by lentiviral plasmid, and the expression of NTCP was measured by RT-qPCR and was not significantly affected (A). HPCs in the HBV and HBV + MUT-NTCP were incubated with HepG 2.2.15 supernatant (containing HBV) for 16 h, with HPCs incubated with cell culture medium as the control. The levels of HBV cccDNA (B) and HBV DNA (C) from the indicated groups were measured by RT-qPCR. The levels of HBsAg (D) and HBeAg (E) in the supernatants from the indicated groups were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. (F, G) Representative images of HBcAg (green) and 4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole nuclear (blue) staining in differentiated HPCs. The levels of HBV cccDNA (B), HBV DNA (C), HBsAg (D), HBeAg (E), and HBcAg (F, G) were significantly decreased after mutating NTCP. Scale bar = 200 µm. Results are mean ± SD for three individual experiments. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01.