Fig. 5

ATAC treatment inhibited inflammasome activation in the RPE/choroid. a–c At both ages of 7.5 months (a) and 11.5 months (b), western blot analysis showed that ATAC significantly inhibited pro-caspase-1 (MW 45 kDa) cleavage into active caspase-1 (MW 20 kDa) in rat RPE/choroid (Mann-Whitney, p ≤ 0.05). c Images of western blot demonstrates a concomitant increase in the pro-caspase-1 band and decrease in the active caspase-1 band after ATAC treatment in both age groups. d Representative micrographs illustrate immunoreactivity for IL-18, a product of inflammasome activation, on the basal side of RPE cells and in choroid from treated and untreated animals at 7.5 and 11.5 months of age. Blue arrows indicate positive IL-18 labeling (VIP, purple). Scale bar; 10 μm. RPE retinal pigment epithelium, Ch choroid. e IL-18 immunoreactivity in the rat RPE/choroid was significantly downregulated by ATAC treatment. Labeling was normalized to 100 % for the untreated animals in each age group (Mann-Whitney, p ≤ 0.05). f, g ELISA measurements of vitreous samples taken from treated and untreated control animals at 11.5 months of age. Note the dramatic reduction in secreted IL-18 (f) and IL-1β (g) concentrations after ATAC treatment (Mann-Whitney, p ≤ 0.05)