Fig. 4.

Reduced silica-induced inflammatory cell death in the absence of cGAS/STING. Silica microparticles (1 mg/mouse, i.t.) or saline vehicle were administered in WT, STING^−/−, and cGAS^−/− mice and the different parameters were analyzed on day 7, as in Fig. 3. a Flow cytometry representative dot blots showing Annexin V/PI staining of F4/80⁺CD11c^– interstitial macrophages (IM), F4/80⁺CD11c⁺ alveolar macrophages (AM), CD11c⁺F4/80⁻dendritic cells (DC), and Ly6G⁺F4/80^– neutrophils among CD45⁺CD11b⁺ cells in WT, STING^−/−, and cGAS^−/− mice. Bargraphs of the Annexin V/PI-stained cells among b interstitial macrophages, c alveolar macrophages, d DCs, and e neutrophils, expressed as absolute cell number per lung. f Immunoblots of caspase 3, cleaved caspase 3, gasdermin D, MLKL, and phospho-MLKL in the lung of WT and STING^−/− mice with β-actin as a reference. *p < 0.05, ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001 (Kruskal–Wallis test followed by Dunn post test). Data are presented as mean ± SEM and are representative of two independent experiments (a–e: mice per group: n = 5 (WT NaCl), n = 4 (WT silica), n = 5 (STING^−/− NaCl), n = 5 (STING^−/− silica), n = 4 (cGAS^−/− NaCl), n = 5 (cGAS^–/– silica)). Immunoblots are representative of n = 6 samples from two independent experiments (f). Each symbol represents an individual mouse. Source data are provided as a Source Data file