The stained cells were analyzed on an LSR II flow cytometer (BD Biosciences). A water-soluble tetrazolium (WST)-1 assay was also performed to measure cell viability and cell death. Huh-7 and Huh-7.5 cells were seeded in 24-well plates, and WST-1 reagent (Nalgene, Rochester, NY) was added to each well. After incubation for 2 hours at 37°C in a 5% CO2 incubator, absorbance was measured at 450 nm by using a microplate

reader (Bio-Rad, Richmond, CA). A lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release assay (Promega, Madison, WI) was also carried out according to the manufacturer’s protocol. Cell lysates were separated by standard 10% glycine/sodium Volasertib concentration dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Proteins were then transferred to nitrocellulose membranes and

probed with antibodies against IKK, IκB, JNK, B-cell JNK inhibitor lymphoma—extra large (xL), XIAP, c-FLIP, FLAG, GAPDH, and β-actin. Blottings were developed using enhanced chemiluminescence (AbFrontier, Seoul, Korea). Images were captured and band intensities were quantified by the Kodak Image Station (Eastman Kodak, Rochester, NY). Cells grown in a four-well chamber slides were fixed with 4% paraformaldehyde in PBS for 15 minutes, permeabilized with 0.15% Triton X-100 (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO) for 15 minutes, and blocked with 1.5% bovine serum albumin (BSA) for 1 hour. Slides were then incubated with polyclonal anti-p65 or anti-HCV core antibody. After washing with PBS, slides were incubated with FITC or rhodamine-conjugated goat anti-rabbit IgG (Santa Cruz Biotechnology). Slides were observed under a fluorescence microscope (Carl Zeiss AG, Oberkochen, Germany).

Huh-7.5 cells were harvested and fractionated into nuclear and cytoplasmic fractions using a nuclear/cytosol fractionation kit (BioVision, Mountain View, medroxyprogesterone CA), according to the manufacturer’s protocols. NF-κB activity was monitored using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)-based colorimetric TransAM NF-κB p65 kit (Active Motif, Carlsbad, CA), containing a 96-well plate with immobilized oligonucleotides encoding an NF-κB consensus site (5′-GGGACTTTCC-3′). The amount of immobilized NF-κB was determined by colorimetric reaction and absorbance at 450 nm. For the binding reaction, 5 μg of nuclear extract was incubated at room temperature for 30 minutes with probe in binding buffer containing 10 mM of Tris-Cl (pH 7.5), 100 mM of KCl, 1 mM of dithiothreitol, 1 mM of ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid, 0.2 mM of phenylmethanesulfonyl fluoride, 1 g/L of BSA, and 5% glycerol. For competition and supershift experiments, nuclear extracts were pretreated with a 100-molar excess of cold oligonucleotide or 1 μg of NF-κB (p50) antibody (Santa Cruz Biotechnology) for 30 minutes before the addition of the labeled probe. Reaction mixtures were analyzed in a 6% polyacrylamide gel and by autoradiography.