LTB and neoplasm: Strikingly, in FL-N/35/IKKβΔhep mice, in which Ikkβ deletion was confirmed by western blot (Figure 5B) and which express similar levels of HCV RNA that the control FL-N/35 animals (Figure 5C), the frequency of tumor formation was indistinguishable from wt non-transgenic males (Figure 5A) and, similarly to spontaneous lesions, the single hepatic tumor that appeared in this cohort was negative for LTβ expression (not shown).