Fig. 5: PFOS-induced BAX/BAK oligomerization contributes to mtDNA release.

a THP-1-deirived macrophages were treated with PFOS as indicated for 6 h, cell lysates were collected to detect the mRNA levels of BCL-2, BAX, and BAK. b Immunoblot analysis of mitochondrial apoptosis pathway and BAX translocation in THP-1-derived macrophages treated as indicated. c Cell lysates and crosslinked pellets from THP-1-derived macrophages treated as indicated were analyzed by immunoblotting for BAX/BAK oligomerization. d–h Wild type (WT, black plots), BAX knockout (KO#1: red plots; KO#2: blue plots), BAK KO (KO#1: yellow plots; KO#2: purple plots) and BAX/BAK double KO (KO#1: gray plots; KO#2: white plots) THP-1-derived macrophages were generated (d). The indicated cells were treated with PFOS (150 μM) for 6 h. The cell death was determined by detecting the LDH release in the supernatants (e). Relative enrichment of mtDNA in AIM2-pulldown material was determined (f). IL-1β production in the supernatants was measured by ELISA (g). The maturation of IL-1β in the supernatants and pro-IL-1β in lysates were detected by immunoblot (h). In a and e–g, all error bars, mean values ± SEM, P-values were determined by unpaired two-tailed Student’s t test of n = 3 independent biological experiments. For b, c, d and h, similar results are obtained for three independent biological experiments. Source data are provided as a Source data file.