FIG 3.

Preferentially, HCV particles with low density are retained intracellularly. (A) HCV J6-replicating Huh7.5 cells were treated with 2 μg/ml of U18666A for 16 h. The cells were lysed by repeated freeze-thaw cycles and loaded on an iodixanol gradient to separate viral particles by their density. Twelve fractions were harvested from top to bottom and were used to infect Huh7.5 cells. The infected cells were harvested 72 h p.i., and viral load was assessed by RT-PCR of the intracellular RNA. The top graph shows the relative infectivity of each fraction, and the bottom graph shows the infectivity as a percentage of the total measured infectivity. The graph shows the relative data from three independent experiments, with SEMs. (B) HCV J6-replicating Huh7.5 cells were treated with 2 μg/ml of U18666A for 16 h. The supernatant was loaded on an iodixanol gradient to separate viral particles by their density. Twelve fractions were harvested from top to bottom and were used to infect Huh7.5 cells. The infected cells were harvested 72 h p.i., and viral load was assessed by RT-PCR of the intracellular RNA. The top graph shows the relative infectivity of each fraction, and the bottom graph shows the infectivity as a percentage of the total measured infectivity. The graph shows the relative data from three independent experiments, with SEMs.