Fig. 2.

The caspase-11 inflammsome in BA-MSCs was activated by nigericin combined with LPS.

BA-MSCs from caspase-11 gene knockout mice, caspase-1/11 double gene knockout mice and wild type mice were primed for 4 h with LPS (500 ng/ml) and then stimulated with or without nigericin (5 μM) for 1.5 h, before the following observations. (a) Western blot analysis of caspase-11, caspase-1 and IL-1β proteins in total lysates (CL) and supernatants (SN) of the three groups of BA-MSCs. n = 3. (b) Electron microscopic scanning on the three groups of BA-MSCs. n = 8. (c) Analysis of pore number counts of three groups of BA-MSCs according to (b). (d) Quantity of BA-MSCs containing GSDMDC1⁺ foci from confocal laser scanning microscopic analysis. n = 3. (e-f) ELISA analyses of IL-1β/18 release from the three groups of BA-MSCs. At least 300 cells were counted for morphological analyses, mean ± SD, t-test, *P < 0.05,**P < 0.01,***P < 0.001, ns: not significant.