Fig. 2.

The effect of EGCG on HBV gene expression and replication in mice. To evaluate the effect of EGCG on HBV replication, HBV mice were treated with or without EGCG (25 mg/kg every day, ip) for 5 days (n = 10 per group). The serum concentrations of HBsAg (a), HBeAg (b), and HBV-DNA (c) were determined by ELISA and quantitative real-time PCR; the level of HBcAg (d) in liver tissue was determined by immunohistochemical staining; the levels of HBV pgRNA and HBV RNAs (e) in liver tissues were determined by qRT-PCR; the levels of intracellular core particle-associated HBV-DNA (f) in liver tissues were determined by Southern blotting; and the levels of ALT (g) in mouse sera were determined by an ALT/GPT ELISA kit. The values were expressed as the means ± SEM of three independent experiments; *P < 0.05 (unpaired, two-tailed Student’s t tests)