Cell Culture

HepG2 and HEK-293T cells were obtained from the American Type Culture Collection, authenticated with standard American Type Culture Collection methods (morphology check under microscope and growth curve analysis) and regularly tested for mycoplasma contamination. Cells were maintained in Dulbecco's modified Eagle medium (DMEM; Corning, New York, NY, USA) containing 10% fetal bovine serum (Life Technologies, Carlsbad, CA, USA) and 1% penicillin–streptomycin (Life Technologies). HepG2-LDLR-GFP cells were grown as previously described (21). All cells were cultured in a humidified incubator at 37°C and 5% CO₂.