Figure 3.

Immunocytochemistry of HFE protein in COS-7 cells cotransfected with wild-type HFE (A and B) or C282Y mutant (C and D) and β₂M cDNAs. In nonpermeabilized cells, a strong positive immunoreaction is seen in the plasma membrane of the cells transfected with wild-type HFE cDNA (A), but the signal for HFE on the cell surface is below the detection limit in cells transfected with the C282Y cDNA (C). In the permeabilized COS-7 cells, the wild-type HFE protein is seen in both ER and Golgi (B), while the signal for the C282Y mutant protein is predominantly in ER (D).