Figure 4.

Mabc-induced IL-1β release is mediated through NLRP3/ASC inflammasome activation. Human MDMs were transduced with nonspecific control shRNA lentiviral particles (shNS) or lentiviral shRNA specific to NLRP3 (shNLRP3) or ASC (shASC) following infection with Mabc (moi=1, 3 or 10 (a); 3 (b)) for 18 h. The supernatants (SN) were harvested and subjected to ELISA analysis (a) and to western blot analysis for mature IL-1β detection (b; densitometric analysis shown on the right). Data are from a representative of at least three independent experiments (a, b, mean values±s.d. of triplicate samples). (a, top) RT–PCR analysis to assess transduction efficiency. ^***P<0.001 versus control cultures. M, Mabc; SN, supernatant; U, uninfected.