Fig. 2.

Arhalofenate acid attenuates MSU crystal-induced IL-1β release by inhibiting NLRP3 inflammasome activation in BMDMs in vitro. BMDMs were pretreated with arhalofenate acid at a concentration of 100 μM for 1 h before being stimulated with monosodium urate (MSU) crystals (0.2 mg/mL) in RPMI containing 1% FBS for 18 h. The conditioned media was used for ELISA for interleukin (IL)-1β (a), and the cell lysates were subjected to Western blot analysis (b) for expression of NLRP3, pro-caspase 1, and cleaved caspase 1 (p10). Data in a are the mean ± SD of three individual experiments, and p values represent comparisons between none and MSU crystals alone, or between MSU crystal alone and MSU crystals plus arhalofenate acid. Data in b are representative of three individual experiments