Figure 4.

CO inhibits ASC speck formation during AIM2 inflammasome activation. (A–D) LPS (100 ng/mL)-primed BMDMs were pre-treated with CO for 30 min, then transfected with poly(dA:dT) (1 μg/mL) for 2 h. Western blots of (A) ASC translocation from Triton X-100 soluble fraction to insoluble fraction, (B) ASC oligomerization in the insoluble fraction (pellet), and (C) ASC speck images at 400× magnification upon stimulation with poly(dA:dT). ASC and nuclei are depicted in red and blue (DAPI), respectively. White arrowheads point to ASC speck. (D) Quantification of cells with ASC specks showed the percentage of positive cells. At least three fields and more than 100 cells were counted for each condition. Data represent the means ± SDs of three independent experiments; ** p < 0.01.