Figure 2.

Effect of the Tp92 protein on the pyroptosis of THP‐1 cells. A and B, Effect of different (A) concentrations and (B) durations of Tp92 or LPS+Nig treatment on caspase‐1 activity. THP‐1 cells were treated with (A) 0, 0.1, 2.5, 5.0, 7.5 or 10.0 μg/mL Tp92 or LPS (1 μg/mL)+Nig (5 μM) for 12 hours or (B) LPS (1 μg/mL)+Nig (5 μM) or 5.0 μg/mL Tp92 for 0, 2, 4, 8, 12 or 24 hours. *P < 0.05 compared with the control. C and D, Effect of Tp92, LPS or LPS+Nig on (C) caspase‐1, pro‐caspase‐1 and (D) GSDMD protein expression determined by Western blotting. THP‐1 cells were treated with Tp92 (5 μg/mL), LPS (1 μg/mL) or LPS (1 μg/mL)+Nig (5 μM) for 12 hours before Western blotting. E‐G, Effect of different (E) concentrations and (F and G) durations of Tp92 or LPS+Nig treatments on the concentrations of IL‐1β and IL‐18 measured by ELISA. THP‐1 cells were treated with (E) 0, 0.1, 2.5, 5.0, 7.5 or 10.0 μg/mL Tp92 or LPS (1 μg/mL)+Nig (5 μM) for 12 hours or (F and G) LPS (1 μg/mL)+Nig (5 μM) or 5.0 μg/mL Tp92 for 0, 4, 8, 12, 24 or 48 hours. *P < 0.05 compared with the control. H‐J, Effect of the caspase‐1‐specific inhibitor VX‐765 or caspase inhibitor Z‐VAD‐FMK on the (H) LDH release rate, (I) total cell death rate and (J) caspase‐1 activity. THP‐1 cells were pretreated with VX‐765 (50 μM) or Z‐VAD‐FMK (100 μM) for 1 hour before being treated with Tp92 (5 μg/mL) for 12 hours. At 4 and 12 hours, the LDH release rate, total cell death rate and casepase‐1 activity were measured and expressed as the means ± standard deviations of three replicates. *P < 0.05 and **P < 0.01 compared with the Tp92 group