Hepatitis B virus X protein induces expression of fibrosis-related factors in human hepatic stellate cells

Abstract

Objective To investigate whether hepatocyte transfected with HBx gene can induce the expression of fibrosis-related factors in hepatic stellate ceils or not, and the mechanism of HBx protein inducing fibrogenesis. Methods LX-2 cells (hepatic steilate cell line)were co-cultured with QSG7701-HBx in vitro, the QSG7701- pcDNA and QSG7701 were used as controls. After co-culture, the mRNA expression levels of α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1), connective tissue growth factor (CTGF)and collagen type Ⅰ (Col Ⅰ )in LX-2 cells were analyzed by RT-PCR. The protein expression levels of α-SMA, TGF-β1 and CTGF weremeasured by Western blot. In addition, the expression levels of collagen type Ⅰ (Col Ⅰ ) from the co-cultured media were quantified by ELISA. Results The mRNA expression levels of α-SMA,TGF-β1, CTGF and Col I in co-cultured LX-2 cells were significantly higher than those of other two control groups( P <0. 05). The protein expression levels of α-SMA, TGF-β1 ,CTGF in co-cultured LX-2 cells were obviously higher than those of two control groups ( P < 0.05 ). The expression levels of Col 1 in co-cuhured LX-2 cells were about 1.5 fold higher than those transfected with QSG7701-pcDNA3 and QSG7701 cells. Conclusion The expression of fibrosis-related factors in LX-2cells were significantly increased after co-cultured with QSG7701-HBx cells, which proved that HBx could induce fibrogenesis in vitro. Key words: Genes; viral ; Hepatitis B virus/GE ; Hepatocytes/ME; Actinin/ME ; Transforming growth factor beta/ME; Intercellular signaling peptides and proteins/ME