DHEA, dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), and LPS (Escherichia coli 055:B5) were provided by Sigma (St Louis, MO, USA). The fetal bovine serum (FBS) was obtained from Gibco (Erie, NY, USA). The Dulbecco's modified Eagle’s medium (DMEM) and trypsin-EDTA were obtained from Biological Industries (Kibbutz Beit-Haemek, Israel). Shanghai Hengyuan Biological Technology Co., Ltd. (Shanghai, China) provided the commercial mouse TNF-α and IL-1β ELISA kit. The MCE (St. Louis, MO, USA) provided the Nigericin and inhibitors that included G1, G15, MCC950, BAY11-7082, rapamycin, and compound C. The lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity and reactive oxygen species detection kit were provided by Beyotime Biotechnology Institute (Shanghai, China).
