Fig. 3.

S. mutans infection induces NLRP3, AIM2, and NLRC4 inflammasome activation. a Immunoblot analysis of ASC, NLRP3, AIM2, NLRC4, and β-actin in S. mutans-infected cells at different time points. The relative western blot band densities were normalised to those of β-actin. b siRNA-transfected cells were infected with S. mutans (MOI 50) for 24 h. The cell culture supernatant was collected and assayed for IL-1β secretion by ELISA. The results represent those from one of three individual experiments. The data are reported as the means ± standard deviations (n = 3). *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01. S.m. means S. mutans