Figure 7

SalA inhibits NLRP3 inflammasome activation to prevent the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines in a TXNIP-dependent manner in PA-treated HepG2 cells.

HepG2 cells were transfected with control siRNA or TXNIP siRNA for 48 h. Then, the transfected cells were treated with SalA (20 μM) for 6 h and TXNIP and NLRP3 protein levels in the cellular lysate (A) were measured by Western blotting. The data are expressed as the mean ± SD (n = 3), ^**P < 0.01 vs. the si-Con group; Furthermore, after pretreatment with SalA (20 μM), the transfected cells were exposed to PA (0.5 mM) for another 24 h. The protein expression of TXNIP, NLRP3 and IL-1β (C) was measured by Western blotting(n = 3) and the culture supernatant TNF-α and IL-6 levels (B) were measured by ELISA (n = 8). The data are expressed as the mean ± SD, ^**P < 0.01 vs. the si-Con group, ^##P < 0.01 vs. the si-Con + PA group. (D) HepG2 cells were pretreated with 20 μM SalA for 6 h and/or 15 μM BAY 11-7082 for 10 h before being exposed to PA (0.5 mM). The protein levels of NLRP3, TXNIP and IL-1β were evaluated by Western blotting. The data are expressed as the mean ± SD (n = 3), ^**P < 0.01 vs. the control group, ^##P < 0.01 vs. the PA group, ^&P < 0.05 vs. the PA + BAY 11-7082 group.