Fig. 3.
Chronic alcohol exposure combined with HBV persistence-induced increases in hepatic total cholesterol levels were associated with enhanced cholesterol biosynthesis pathway in FVB mice. A: Gene expression analysis of SREBP-2 by real-time PCR in the liver of FVB mice [n1 = 7, n2 = 9, n3 = 7, n4 = 8; n1, pair-fed; n2, ethanol (EtOH); n3, HBV + pair-fed; n4, HBV + EtOH]. B: Expression of SREBP-2 in the hepatocytes by IHC (red arrows, cytoplasmic SREBP-2; yellow arrows, nuclear SREBP-2; original magnification, ×400). C: Gene expression analysis of HMGCR by real-time PCR (n1 = 7, n2 = 9, n3 = 7, n4 = 8; n1, pair-fed; n2, EtOH; n3, HBV + pair-fed; n4, HBV + EtOH). D: Representative Western blot and relative quantitation of HMGCR protein levels in FVB mice. GAPDH was used as a loading control. Data are mean ± SEM. *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001.