Microscopy images documenting cellular morphology and infection phenotypes of wild-type and attenuated HCV variants

Immunostaining of Huh7.5 cell infected with HCV variants or WT at 2, 4 and 6 days<br>post infection. Cells were stained with HCV-positive serum and anti-human 488<br>Alexa fluor as secondary antibody and visualized by fluorescence microscopy. Green– HCV infection, blue – nuclei (DAPI).<br>Invasion/migration experiment: WT-infected and HCVmut7-infected cells were seeded in<br>inserts on Matrigel for 24 hours and then fixated. Filters were stained with crystal<br>violet. The cells that invaded the lower side on the filters were counted.<br>Matrix degradation assay: WT-infected and HCVmut7-infected cells were plated on Alexa 488 labelled Gelatine for<br>72 hours and then fixated. Degradation was analysed by quantifying the average<br>degraded area per field using ImageJ software and normalized to the number of cells<br>in each field.