Fig 5.

HCV core protein downregulates FXR promoter activation and suppresses FXR protein expression in human hepatocytes. (A) HCV core protein suppressed FXR-mediated C3 promoter activity induced by CDCA in a luciferase reporter assay. (B) Western blot analysis of Huh7 cell lysates transfected with HCV plasmid DNAs revealed core protein-mediated FXR downregulation. Cellular actin was used for comparison of protein load in each well. FXR expression in each band was quantified by normalizing values to corresponding actin levels using densitometric analysis.