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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2019 Feb 18.
Published in final edited form as: Brain Behav Immun. 2017 Feb 21;62:291–305. doi: 10.1016/j.bbi.2017.02.014

Figure 8: Cholesterol crystals or ethanol activates NLRP3 inflammasomes and caspase-1 in brain endothelial cell culture.

Figure 8:

(A) Immunocytochemistry of NLRP3 (green) and caspase-1 (red) merged with DAPI (blue) are shown in untreated, 24 hours 50 mM EtOH, Cholesterol Crystals (CholCryst, 1 mM), and EtOH+ALC (ALC=1 mg/ml) treated hBECs. Scale bar indicates 20 μm in all panels. B-C)Western blot analysis of NLRP3 (B) and caspase-1 (pro and mature) (C) in 24 hours of EtOH (50 mM), EtOH+LPS (LPS=1 g/mL), EtOH+CD (CD=2 M), EtOH+zYVAD-fmk (zYVAD-fmk, caspase-1 inhibitor, 5 g/ml), CholCryst (1 mM) and EtOH+ALC (ALC=100 M) treated hBECs. Bar graphs show the results that are expressed as ratio of NLRP3 in B and caspase1 in C to that of -actin bands, and values are mean (±SEM; N = 4). *p<0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001 vs control; #p<0.5, ##p<0.01, ###p<0.001 vs EtOH (second bar).