Fig. 4

BC-induced NLRP3 inflammasome activity requires K⁺ efflux. MAC-T cells were treated with BC (MOI = 5) or LPS (500 ng/mL) + ATP (5 mmol/L) in the absence (-) or presence ( +) of 50 mmol/L KCl ( +) or at increasing concentrations of KCl (5, 25, 50 and 75 mmol/L). (A) IL-1β mRNA level. (B) IL-18 mRNA level. (C) Cell death in MAC-T. The data for the CONTROL group were used to normalize the data of each treatment group. Comparisons among groups were calculated using one-way ANOVA. Data are means ± SEM of three independent experiments. *P < 0.05 and ***P < 0.001