Fig. 2.

Effects of ICA on chondrocytes injury and pyroptosis. a The cell activity was detected by MTT assay in chondrocytes treated with various concentrations of ICA for 24 h. b Leakage of LDH was assessed by ELISA assay in chondrocytes treated with LPS or ICA. The mRNA levels of IL-1β (c) and IL-18 (d) were analyzed by qRT-PCR in chondrocytes treated with LPS or ICA. The release level of IL-1β (e) and IL-18 (f) were analyzed by ELISA assay in chondrocytes treated with LPS or ICA. g The protein level of collagen formation and pyroptosis-related protein was analyzed by Western blotting in rat chondrocytes treated with LPS or ICA. h Quantitative analysis of protein band gray in g. GAPDH was used as internal control. All the results were shown as mean ± SD (n = 3), which were three separate experiments performed in triplicate. *p < 0.05 and **p < 0.01