Fig. 4.

Three doses of “sandwich” treatment promoted HBV clearance. AAV/HBV mouse models were established via injection of 2 × 10¹⁰ AAV/HBV1.3. The “sandwich” treatment regime was administered three times as indicated and mice were sacrificed three weeks after the third treatment (n = 5/group) (a). The mice serum was collected at day 0, 2, 5, 9, 12, 15, 19, 23, 28, 34, 41, 55 and the serum HBsAg levels are quantified (b). The serum HBeAg levels after the treatment are quantified (c). HBcAg- and HBsAg-expressing hepatocytes in individual mouse livers were stained with DAB. The percentage of the HBcAg (d) or HBsAg (e) positive stained area was quantified and the representative staining that appears as brown are shown (f). Error bars represent mean ± SEM. * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01 by two-tailed Mann-Whitney U test (b, c, d, e).