Cell culture supernatants were precipitated by adding an equal volume of methanol and 0.25 volumes of chloroform, vortexed and centrifuged at 20.000 × g for 10 min. The upper phase was discarded and 500 µl of methanol was added to the interphase. This mixture was centrifuged at 20.000 × g for 10 min and the protein pellet dried at 55 °C, resuspended in Laemmli buffer and boiled at 99°C for 5 min. Samples were separated by SDS-PAGE (15%) and transferred onto nitrocellulose membranes. As indicated, blots were incubated with rabbit polyclonal antibody to anti murine caspase-1 p10 (sc-514, Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Santa Cruz, CA), rabbit polyclonal anti human caspase-1 p10 (sc-515, Santa Cruz Biotechnology), rabbit polyclonal anti human cleaved IL-1β (Asp116) (Cell Signaling, Boston, MA) or rabbit polyclonal anti murine cathepsin B (R&D Systems, Minneapolis, MN).