FIG. 5.

AR expression enhances the HCV-mediated VEGF mRNA level and the formation of capillarylike structure in HCMECs. (A) Real-time PCR for analysis of VEGF induction. Relative expression of VEGF gene in HCV-infected Huh-7 cells (▪) and mock-infected cells (□). The results presented are based on the relative expression level of housekeeping GAPDH gene. The lowest level of significance was P < 0.0001. (B) HCMECs (5 × 10⁴ cells/well) were incubated with different CMs for 18 h, and tube formation between cells was observed and captured by digital camera. CM from control Huh-7 cells (a), cells transfected with AR (b), cells infected with HCV (c), or cells infected with HCV and transfected with AR (d) was used. (C) Quantification of the total tube length. The tube length of HCMECs incubated with CM from Huh-7 cells was set as 1, and other experimental conditions described in panel B were compared. The lowest level of significance was P < 0.005. (D) Tube numbers were counted. The results are presented as the mean ± the SD from at least three independent experiments.