Figure 4.

Ability of full-length HBx (A; adr versus ayw subtypes) and various HBx deletion mutants (B; ayw subtype) to transcriptionally transactivate SV40- and/or human NOS2 promoter-driven luciferase reporter constructs in HepG2 cells. Thirty-six to 48 hours after transfection, whole cell lysates were prepared, and resonance light units per μg protein were determined as described in Materials and Methods. (A) Representative data from a single experiment testing each sample in triplicate (Student’s t test; all data points, P ≤ 0.003). (B) Bar values represent the mean ± SD of resonance light units per μg protein relative to the CMV–neomycin control vector from three independent experiments (Student’s t test: all data points for SV40, P ≤ 0.016 and for NOS2, P ≤ 0.005).