Abstract: Objective: To investigate  the expression of IL-1β and NLRP3 in gonococcus infected monocytes. Methods: Mouse spleen mononuclear cells were extracted. The different concentrations of bacterial solutions were identified by spectrophotometer and the concentrations with OD450 of 0.2, 0.6, 1.0 and 1.4 were selected. The extracted mononuclear cells were infected by gonococcus. After co-culture for 6 h, the expression of IL-1β in each group were detected by real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR. Results: The results of real-time quantitative PCR showed that IL-1β, NLRP3 expression levels in the experiment groups were higher than those in the blank control group with the tend of increased in initial stage and then declined. The highest of IL-1β expression level in the mononuclear cells was under the concentration with OD450=0.6, while NLRP3 level when the bacterial solution concentration OD450 was 1.0. Conclusion: Gonococcus can up-regulate the IL-1β and NLRP3 expression in monocytes.

Key words: neisseria gonorrhoeae, mononuclear cell, IL-1β, NLRP3