Fig. 1.

The effects on IL-15 expression in Huh7 cells of IFN-α and -β at various concentrations. Huh7 cells were cultured for 72 h with or without IFN-α/β at consentrations of 100, 1,000, or 10,000 U/ml. a The IL-15 Expression level and the β-actin gene were quantified by reverse-transcription real-time PCR. The IL-15 mRNA expression level was adjusted to the β-actin mRNA expression level. b The IL-15 concentration in the culture supernatant was quantified by ELISA. c Cell numbers were counted by flow cytometry after detachment with trypsinization, and the cell growth rate of IFN-treated cells in comparison with the controls was calculated. d The supernatant IL-15 concentration was adjusted to the cell number, and the IL-15 production increase rate of IFN-treated cells in comparison with the controls was calculated. All experiments were repeated three times and representative results are depicted