Correlation between HCV RNA replication and appearance of double membrane vesicles.
(A) Time course of spread of HCV infection in Huh7.5 cells infected with 100 TCID50/cell of Jc1. Infected cells were detected by immunofluorescence using an NS5A-specific antiserum (upper panels). The graph shown below represents the result of counting ∼200 cells for each time point to determine the percentage of infected cells. Scale bars represent 50 µm. (B) Time course of accumulation of intracellular HCV RNA in infected Huh7.5 cells. The graph shows the result of two independent experiments (3 replicas each). Whiskers indicate the minimum and maximum values. (C) Colocalization of dsRNA and NS5A in cells infected with Jc1 (10 TCID50/cell). Cells were fixed at time points specified in the left of each panel row and NS5A and dsRNA were detected by indirect immunofluorescence microscopy. DNA was stained with DAPI (blue). Boxed areas in the left panels indicate areas that are shown as enlargements in the corresponding right panels. The quantification of the degree of colocalization (Pearson's correlation coefficient) is given in the enlarged pictures. Scale bars represent 10 µm and 2 µm (left and right panels, respectively). (D) Time course of accumulation of DMVs and MMVs. For each time point, 10 cellular profiles were counted. The Mann-Whitney (non-parametric) test was applied to determine statistical significance. Error bars refer to the standard deviation. Note the striking correlation between the increase of intracellular HCV RNA and DMV number between 16 and 24 hpi.
