TLR4-NLRP3-GSDMD-Mediated Pyroptosis Plays an Important Role in Aggravated Liver Injury of CD38^-/- Sepsis Mice

Figure 2

Escherichia coli can induce more serious liver injury in CD38^-/- mice. The equivalent amount of E. coli suspension was injected intraperitoneally into WT, CD38^-/-, and CD38^-/-TLR4^mut mice, and the liver and serum samples were harvested after 3 hours. The mRNA of TLR4 (a) in the liver was measured by RT-qPCR, and the expression of TLR4 (b) was detected by Western blot. The concentrations of AST (c) and ALT (d) in serum were determined by using the detection kits. And the liver samples were taken for hematoxylin and eosin staining (e, f, h, i, j, k). The yellow arrows indicate edema, the blue arrows indicate inflammatory cell infiltration, the black arrows indicate punctate necrosis, and the green arrows indicate binucleate hepatocytes. Data are presented as . Statistical significance was determined by one-way ANOVA (, , ).