After 6 hours the medium was replaced by DMEM high glucose containing 0.5% FBS. Twelve hours later, cells were treated with 1,000 IU/mL of recombinant human IFN-α-2a (Roferon-A Roche) for the times indicated (Fig. 4A). For siRNA experiments, Hep3B cells (50,000 cells/well) were seeded in 12-well plates. Cells were transfected using Lipofectamine-2000 (Invitrogen) and siRNA (Dharmacon) directed against signal transducer and activation of transcription 3 (STAT3) (SMARTpool) or scrambled siRNA (SCR) as control. Forty-eight hours later, cells were washed with phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) and incubated with 0.5% FBS JQ1 medium. The following day, cells were treated or not

with 1,000 IU/mL of IFN-α-2a. After 3 hours, RNA was extracted as described below. Hep3B

cells (40,000 cells/well) were seeded in 24-well plates. The next day, cells were transfected with 200 ng of pGL4-hepcidin (WT_2.7kb) promoter, pGL4-BMP-mutant, or pGL4-STAT3-mutant hepcidin promoter containing reporter vectors this website (Promega), together with 10 ng of a control plasmid containing the Renilla gene under the control of the cytomegalovirus (CMV) promoter, as described in detail elsewhere.18 Plasmid transfections were performed using Trans-IT-LT1 transfection reagent (Mirus) according to the manufacturer’s instructions. After 24 hours, cells were incubated with medium with or without 1,000 IU/mL of IFN-α-2a for 8 hours. Subsequently, cells were lysed in Passive Lysis Buffer (Promega) and luciferase activity was determined using the Dual-Luciferase-Reporter assay system (Promega) and a Centro LB 960 luminometer (Berthold Technologies). Total RNA was extracted using the Qiagen RNAeasy kit according to the manufacturer’s instructions (Qiagen). One μg of total RNA was reverse-transcribed in a 20 μL reaction using M-MLV reverse transcriptase (Fermentas) and random oligomers as primers. SYBR green quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) was performed using the ABI

StepONE Plus Real Time PCR System (Applied Biosystems). The primers used have 上海皓元医药股份有限公司 been detailed previously.19 Relative messenger RNA (mRNA) expression of the target genes was normalized to the GAPDH mRNA expression. In all, 2,000,000 Hep3B cells were plated in 10-cm dishes with DMEM high glucose (10% FBS). Twenty-four hours later the medium was replaced by DMEM high glucose containing 0.5% FBS. The following day, cells were treated or not with 1,000 IU/mL of IFN-α-2a (Roferon-A, Roche) for the times indicated (Fig 4B). Cells were lysed in lysis buffer (10 mM TRIS HCl, pH 7.4, 150 mM sodium chloride, 5 mM EDTA, 1% TritonX [Sigma], and phosphatase inhibitor cocktail PhosSTOP [Roche]) and protein quantification was performed using the bicinchoninic acid method (BCA, Pierce, Thermoscientific). Forty μg of total protein was separated by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS/PAGE) and transferred onto a nitrocellulose membrane (Protran BA83).