Interleukin-1b (IL-1β), a proinflammatory cytokine, regulates the innate immune responses against bacterial infection. Mature IL-1β is produced from pro-IL-1β by activated caspase-1, which in turn is activated by the inflammasome complex formation. In this study, we compared the inflammasome mRNA expression induced by S. sanguinis, S. oralis, F. nucleatum and P. intermedia. Among the tested bacteria, S. sanguinis induced the highest IL-1β secretion. S. oralis, F. nucleatum and P. intermedia induced very weak IL-1β secretion. S. sanguinis mostly induced the NLRP3 mRNA expressions. Although F. nucleatum did not induce high IL-1β secretion, it induced high expression levels of AIM2, NLRP2, and NLRP3. No specific inflammasomes were induced by S. oralis and P.intermedia. Studying the inflammasome complex activation induced by oral bacteria may thus enhance our understanding of the pathogenesis of oral diseases.

• Hee Sam Na(Department of Oral Microbiology, School of Dentistry, Pusan National University, Yangsan 626-870, Korea)
• Su Mi Kim(Department of Oral Microbiology, School of Dentistry, Pusan National University, Yangsan 626-870, Korea)
• Yu Ri Song(Department of Oral Microbiology, School of Dentistry, Pusan National University, Yangsan 626-870, Korea)
• Seyeon Kim(Department of Oral Microbiology, School of Dentistry, Pusan National University, Yangsan 626-870, Korea)
• Jin Chung(Department of Oral Microbiology, School of Dentistry, Pusan National University, Yangsan 626-870, Korea) Corresponding author