Fig. 6. The effects of AIM2 inflammasome on PFOS-induced inflammatory responses in vivo.

a–d Wild type (WT), Nlrp3^−/− (red plots) or Aim2^−/− (blue plots) mice (female, 6 weeks old) were i.p. with PBS containing 2% Tween-80 (Mock, n = 5) or PFOS (dissolved in PBS containing 2% Tween-80, n = 5). In order to better show the protective role of inflammasome component deficiency in the presence of PFOS exposure, the dose of PFOS in this model we used was 25 mg/kg body weight per day. At 5 days post-treatment, liver tissue, lung tissue, and kidney tissue of these mice were stained with hematoxylin-eosin (H&E) and assayed using a light microscope with ×200 magnification. Scale bar, 100 μm. The tissue (liver, lung, and kidney) injury score was determined and averaged in 5 randomly selected nonoverlapping fields from respective individual mouse tissue sections. All histology analyses were conducted in a blinded manner (a). At 5 days post-treatment, the serum and peritoneal fluids were collected to determine the level of IL-1β (b), TNF-α (c), and IL-6 (d) by ELISA. The liver, lung, and kidney of treated mice were isolated and cultured for 24 h, and the secretion of IL-1β (b), TNF-α (c), and IL-6 (d) in the supernatants were detected by ELISA. In b–d, all error bars, mean values ± SD, P-values were determined by unpaired two-tailed Student’s t test (n = 5 independent biological mice per group). Source data are provided as a Source data file.