For gene knockdown experiment on HepaRG cells SLC10A1 from HepaRG cells was cloned, and the sequence was deposited to Genebank (accession number: JQ814895). Differentiated HepaRG cells in 48-well plate were transfected using RNAiMax (Invitrogen) with 20 nM of a siRNA pool (Qiagen) containing four specific siRNAs targeting different regions of human SLC10A1 (5′-GGAUCGUCCUCAAAUCCAAdTdT-3′, 5′-GGAGUCAGCCGGAGAACAAdTd T-3′, 5′-GGACAAGGUGCCCUAUAAAdTdT-3′, 5′-GGUGCUAUGAGAAAUUCAAdTdT-3′) or a negative control siRNA (Ctrl-si: 5′-UUCUCCGAACGUGUCACGUdTdT-3′) as indicated. Gene knockdown efficiency was examined 4 days after transfection. Cells were then inoculated for 16 hr with HBV in the presence of 3.6% PEG8000. The secreted HBeAg and the 3.5 kb HBV RNA were determined on indicated days after infection.