Total protein from cells or tissues was obtained using ice-cold lysis buffer and quantified with the Bicinchoninic Acid Protein Assay Kit (Solarbio, Beijing, China). After protein extraction, equal amounts of protein were loaded on SDS-PAGE and transferred to polyvinylidene fluoride membranes (MilliporeSigma, Burlington, MA, USA). The membranes were incubated in 5% fat-free milk for 2 hours. We used primary antibodies against IL-17 (1:666, cat. MAA063Rb21; Cloud-Clone Corp, Wuhan, China), phospho-stat3 (Y705) (1:500, cat. MAB4607; R&D Systems, Minneapolis, MN, USA), IL-1β (1:250, cat. PAA563Rb51; Cloud-Clone Corp), IL-6 (1:1000, cat. MAA079Rb21; Cloud-Clone Corp), and β-actin antibody (1:2000, cat. ZB-5301; ZSGB-BIO, Beijing, China). Horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-linked anti-mouse IgG (1:5000, cat. #7076S; Cell Signaling Technology, Danvers, MA, USA), HRP-linked anti-cavia IgG (1:8000, cat. SAA544Gu09; Cloud-Clone Corp), and HRP-linked anti-rat IgG (1:2000, cat. SA00001-15; Proteintech, Wuhan, China) were used as secondary antibodies. After incubating the membranes with primary antibodies and secondary antibodies, we detected positive bands with Multispectral Imaging System (UVP, Tanon, Beijing, China) and analyzed them with Quantity One software (Bio-Rad, Hercules, CA, USA).