Possible Involvement of Mitochondrial Dysfunction and Oxidative Stress in a Cellular Model of NAFLD Progression Induced by Benzo[a]pyrene/Ethanol CoExposure

Figure 6

Characterization of the AhR-deficient HepaRG cells. HepaRG cells lacking functional AhR (mutAhR) were obtained using the CRISPR/Cas9 system as described in Materials and Methods and compared with wild-type (WT) HepaRG cells. Investigations were carried out in nonsteatotic condition. (a) Protein expression of AhR, CYP2E1, CYP3A4, albumin, aldolase B, and β-actin. Numbers mentioned in the table are of the β-actin-normalized expression of each protein for 3 independent cultures. (b) EROD activity in cells treated with 0, 25, or 50 μM ITE for 48 hours. (c) mRNA expression of AHR, CYP1A1, CYP1A2, CYP2E1, CYP3A4, ALB, and ALDOB. Results are for 4 (b) or 3 (c) independent cultures. Significantly different from WT HepaRG cells.

(a) Protein expression

(b) EROD activity

(c) mRNA expression