Fig. 5
Enhanced mRNA expression of IL-1β (a) and NLRP3 (b), but not TLR2 (c) in MH-S cells exposed to PM2.5 at high glucose setting. The cells were treated with 50 μg/mL of PM2.5 for 3 h with/without 30 mM of glucose pretreatment for 18 days. Mannitol was used as an osmolality control. The cells treated with physiological saline were used as control. The mRNA expression of the gene was determined by RT-qPCR and normalized to the β-actin expression in the same sample. Data are shown as mean ± SEM (n = 3). * p < 0.05 vs. control; # p < 0.05 vs. group with PM2.5 treatment only