Figure 7.
HBx activates telomerase function. (A and B) A luciferase reporter gene assay revealed that HBx was able to promote the transcriptional activities of hTERT in L-O2-X/3T3-X cells relative to L-O2-P/3T3-P cells (cP<0.01 vs L-O2-P or 3T3-P, Student's t test). (C and D) A TRAP assay confirmed telomerase activity; proteins were separated by electrophoresis and visualized after silver staining. Lane 1, L-O2 cells; lane 2, L-O2-P cells; lane 3, L-O2-X cells. The data suggest that L-O2-X cells have a malignant phenotype.