Figure 2

Downregulation of nucleotide binding and oligomerization domain-like receptor family pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3) by siRNA led to significant reduction of proinflammatory cytokines and cleaved caspase-1. (A) The expression level of cleaved IL-1β (18 kDa) was detected by Western blot analysis and ELISA. β-actin was used as loading control. (B) The expression level of cleaved IL-18 was detected by ELISA. (C) The protein expression level of active caspase-1 (20 kDa) was analyzed using the Western blot assay. The gene expression level of caspase-1 was detected by quantitative real-time PCR. Data are expressed as a fold change relative to SE rat infused with control siRNA. All data are shown as mean ± standard deviation (n = 6 per group). *P < 0.05 versus control siRNA treatment.