FIG 2.

HCV core 1a protein promotes SMAD1/5 phosphorylation and ID1. (A) Schematic representation of the downstream portion of the endoglin-mediated signaling pathway. (B). Phospho-SMAD1/5 (S463/465) status in HepG2 cells, HepG2 core 1a-transfected cells, primary human hepatocytes (PHH), IHH, and IHH antisense core-transfected cells cell lines as determined by Western blotting. Densitometric scanning of the Western blot results is shown on the right. Actin was used as an internal control for comparison of protein load in each lane. (C) ID1 protein expression in these cells was analyzed similarly. (D) HCV core 1a protein expression in transfected cells was analyzed by Western blotting. Densitometric scanning of the Western blot results is shown on the right. The negative-control HepG2 value was arbitrarily considered to be 1 for comparison of core expression in transfected cells. (E) Core protein expression was separately analyzed by ELISA.