Fig. 4.

Schematic diagram of SHMOs exerting anti-inflammatory effects in NEC. Pooled SHMOs mixture attenuated hyper-expressed TLR4, inhibited NF-κB-mediated production of inflammatory cytokines, attenuated mitochondrial dysfunction and NLRP3 activation, and thereby mitigated inflammatory injury in NEC. The red arrows indicate the change of signaling molecules after exposure to SHMOs; the red lines indicate the potential steps that SHMOs might affect in the pathway. IκB-α, inhibitor κB-α; IL-1β, interleukin-1β; IL-6, interleukin-6; LPS, lipopolysaccharide; NF-κB, nuclear factor-κB; NLRP3, nod-like receptor pyrin 3; TNF-α, tumor necrosis factor-α; TLR4, toll like receptor 4