Fig. 7

Role of Ca²⁺ in extracellular acidosis-induced pyroptosis in primary articular chondrocytes. a Chelating agents of Ca²⁺ BAPTA-AM inhibited pyroptosis induced by extracellular acidosis in primary articular chondrocytes by western blotting for ASC, NLRP3 and cleaved caspase-1p10. b BAPTA-AM inhibited the levels of IL-1β and IL-18 in culture medium. c Effects of BAPTA-AM on extracellular acidosis-induced pyroptosis in primary articular chondrocytes by real-time PCR. d BAPTA-AM resisted the release of LDH in primary articular chondrocytes. e BAPTA-AM inhibited pyroptosis induced by extracellular acidosis in primary articular chondrocytes by AO/EB staining, semi-quantitative results. f BAPTA-AM reduced the levels of ASC and NLRP3 in primary articular chondrocytes by immunofluorescence. The data are presented as the mean ± SEM of three wells in three independent experiments, ^*P < 0.05, ^**P < 0.01 vs. pH 7.4 group; ^#P < 0.05, ^##P < 0.01 vs. pH 6.0 group