HCV impacts subcellular PI4P distribution.

(A) Huh7.5 cells, JFH-A4 and Con1-SR cells were analyzed by confocal microscopy for the presence of PI4P (green) in the plasma membranes (PM, upper panel) or in the intracellular membrane (IM, lower panel) using the protocols described in Materials and Methods. Nuclei were stained by the Hoechst dye (blue). For internal membrane staining, giantin (red) was used as a specific marker for Golgi membranes. (B) Quantification of PI4P levels by immunofluorescence analysis. Changes in mean fluorescence intensity relative to the control (Huh7.5 cells) are shown. Four randomly picked fields were analyzed per each condition. Normalization was performed as detailed in Materials and Methods. Data are presented as averages ± SEM. *, p<0.05; **, p<0.01; ***, p<0.001.