Fig. 6

The combination of SC and Lut reduces hepatitis B virus replication in vivo. C57BL/6J mice were hydrodynamic injection with 20 μg of pAAV/HBV1.2 plasmids through the tail vein within 6 − 8 s, controls were injected with saline equivalent to 10% of the mouse’s body weight. After 3 days, blood was taken from the orbit to detect the level of HBsAg, HBeAg and HBVDNA in the serum. When the expression of HBsAg, HBeAg, and HBV DNA in mice increases, the mice injected with plasmids were divided into 4 groups (n = 6), which were treated with saline, Lut, SC, and their combination under the minimal liver-cytotoxic concentration within 20 days, respectively (A). The control group was given saline. Serum HBeAg (D–F), HBsAg (G–I) and HBV DNA (B, C) levels were measured for indicated times. Mice were sacrificed at the 20 day, the expression of HBcAg in liver were detected by immunohistochemistry (J), scale bars: 250 μm (top row); 50 μm (bottom row). Data are shown as mean ± SEM, *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, NS: not significant (one-way ANOVA with Dunnett’s post-hoc test)