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. 2014 Dec 18;9(12):e115309. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0115309

Figure 1. Effect of HCV 3a core on sterol and triglyceride contents and LD morphology.

Figure 1

(A) Sterol and triglyceride contents were assessed by GC-MS in Huh-7 control cells (untransduced [CT]), GFP-transduced (GFP) or HCV genotype 2a or 3a core protein expressing cells. TGs, cholesterol and cholesteryl esters (CE) were identified by their retention times and fragmentation pattern. (B) The expression of SOAT-1 and -2 mRNA was assessed after transduction of Huh-7 cells with HCV core protein of genotype 3a, 2a or GFP at three days post-transduction by RT-qPCR. Results are represented as mean ±SEM. (C) Huh-7 cells were treated for 48 hours with lovastatin (10 µM) or with the SOAT inhibitor TMP-153 (25 nM) and CE levels were measured using the cholesterol/cholesteryl ester quantitation kit. Values were normalized to the amount of protein. Results are represented as mean ± SEM of at least 3 independent experiments. (D) Representative confocal pictures of ORO-stained Huh-7 cells either untransduced (a, d) or transduced with lentivectors expressing the core 3a untreated (b, e) and treated with 10 µM of lovastatin (c) or 25 nM TMP-153 (f) for 48 hours.