Effects of HBeAg on apoptosis and viability of macrophages.

(A) THP-1 M0, M1-like and M2-like macrophages with and without the treatment of HBeAg were stained with propidium iodide and then analyzed by flow cytometry. (B) Human MDMs treated with GM-CSF for the induction of M1-like polarization or with CSF-1 for M2-like polarization were analyzed for their viability using the CCK8 assay. (C) Kupffer cells isolated from control mice (Cont KC) or HBV-negative mice born to hemizygous HBV transgenic dams (TGD KC) were analyzed for their viability using the CCK8 assay. (D) Kupffer cells were isolated from control mice and HBV transgenic mice carrying either the 1.3mer HBV genome (Tg05) or the precore protein gene (TgHBe) as described in the Methods section for analysis. Both Tg05 and TgHBe mice had reduced numbers of Kupffer cells. In (B), (C) and (D), N.S., not significant; **, p<0.01; ***, p<0.001.

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