BAY 11-7082, SP600125, SB202190 and monoclonal antibodies against β-actin (A5316) were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (St Louis, MO). Rabbit

antibodies against NF-κBp65 (sc-372), p38 (sc-7149), Gas6 (sc-1935) and ProS (sc-27027) were purchased from Santa Cruz Biotechnology (Santa Cruz, CA). Rabbit anti-phospho-p65 (No. 5970), anti-phospho-p38 (No. 4631) and anti-phospho-IRF3 (No. 3661) antibodies were purchased from Cell Signaling Technology (Beverly, selleck chemicals llc MA). Rabbit anti-F4/80 (ab6640) antibodies were purchased from Abcam (Cambridge, UK). Fluorescein isothiocyanate-conjugated and horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-conjuated secondary antibodies were purchased from Zhongshan Biotechnology, Inc. (Beijing, China). Phycoerythrin (PE)-conjugated antibodies against F4/80 and FITC-conjugated annexin V were purchased from Biolegend (San Diego, CA). Peritoneal macrophages were isolated based on a previous approach.21 Briefly, mice were anaesthetized with CO2 and then killed by cervical dislocation. The peritoneal cavities were lavaged with 5 ml ice-cold PBS to collect peritoneal cells. The cells were cultured signaling pathway in RPMI-1640 (Gibco-BRL, Grand

Island, NY) supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (Gibco-BRL) in a humidified atmosphere containing 5% CO2 at 37°. After 2 hr, non-adherent cells were removed by vigorously washing with PBS, and the macrophages adhering to the dishes were identified by immunostaining for F4/80 (a marker for macrophages) and used for subsequent experiments. Mouse macrophages cultured on Lab-Tek

chamber slides (Nunc, Naperville, IL) were fixed with cold methanol at −20° for 3 min, and permeabilized with 0·2% Triton X-100 in PBS for 15 min. The cells were blocked by incubation with 10% normal goat Acyl CoA dehydrogenase serum in PBS at room temperature for 30 min, and then incubated with rabbit anti-F4/80 antibodies in a humid chamber at 37° for 1 hr. After washing thrice with PBS, the cells were incubated with the FITC-conjugated goat anti-rabbit IgG for 30 min. Negative controls were incubated with pre-immune rabbit serum instead of the anti-F4/80 antibodies. The cells were washed thrice with PBS and subjected to a counterstaining for nuclei using 4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI; Zhongshan Biotechnology, Inc.). The slides were mounted for examination under a fluorescence microscope (IX-71; Olympus, Tokyo, Japan). Macrophages were detached by treatment with 5 mm EDTA for 5 min. After washing with cold PBS, the cells were stained with PE-conjugated antibodies against F4/80, FITC-conjugated annexin V following the manufacturer’s instructions. The cells were analysed using a BD FACSSanto flow cytometer (BD Biosciences). Total RNA was isolated from macrophages using TRIzol reagent (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA) in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions.