Figure 2. CB₁ is directly up-regulated by hepatitis C virus in a cell culture system.

Relative hepatic CB₁ mRNA expression in Huh7 cells infected with the JFH₁ strain hepatitis C virus as compared to mock infected control cells normalised to 18s; A) 4-fold up-regulation of CB₁ mRNA in JFH-1 infected cells compared to control and B) Western blotting confirmed CB₁ protein up-regulation by at least >8-fold as measured by densitometry. C) Time course of CB₁ expression following de novo infection with JFH-1 hepatitis C virus. CB₁ expression increases with time (p<0.01), in parallel to the percentage of Huh7 cells infected (see horizontal axis) D) representative immunostaining for NS5a showing increasing infection of Huh7 cells at day 5, 15, 22 and 26.