Figure 3

Efficient replication of HCV in KH cells. HCV RNA of HJ3-5, a chimeric clone of genotype 1a H77S and genotype 2a JFH-1, and HJ3-5/GND, a replication-defective NS5B mutant of HJ3-5, were transfected by electroporation into KH and Huh-7.5 cells. (a) HCV core protein and β-actin expression by western blotting analysis with appropriate antibodies at 48, 72, and 96 h after transfection. Signal strength of HCV core protein and β-actin was quantitated by ImageJ, normalised to β-actin at each time point, and further normalised to the signal strength of HCV core protein of KH cells at 48 h, which was set to 1. Full-length gels and blots before cropping are shown in Supplementary Fig. S3. (b) Immunofluorescence analysis of HCV core protein expression at 96 h after transfection. Nuclei are labelled with DAPI. Images are merged; each image was taken under the same conditions. Upper panels, low power field; lower panels, high power field. Blue, DAPI; green, HCV core.