FIG. 3.

HCV core protein inhibits activation of procaspase-8 in TNF-α-treated cells. HepG2 cells stably transfected with HCV core or FL plasmid DNA were treated with TNF-α (20 ng/ml) for 0, 12, or 24 h. Empty vector-transfected HepG2 cells were similarly treated as a control. Cell lysates were analyzed for detection of caspase-8 by Western blotting. The level of cellular actin was used as an internal control for comparison. The molecular weights of the protein bands were ascertained from the migration of standard protein molecular weight markers (Bio-Rad).