Bacterial internalization and endosomal acidification are required for efficient IL-1β secretion upon <i>O. tsutsugamushi</i> infection.

<p>LPS-primed BMDMs were pretreated with cytochalasin D (CD) (A) or NH₄Cl (B) at the indicated concentration for 1 h, and then challenged with OT (50 ICU/cell) for 6 h or ATP (5 mM) for 3 h. The production of IL-1β and TNF-α from infected cells was assessed by ELISA. Error bars represent SD of triplicate samples. <i>*p<0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001</i> versus vehicle-treated cells. Data are representative of three independent experiments in A and B.