A Novel Mechanism of Mesenchymal Stromal Cell-Mediated Protection against Sepsis: Restricting Inflammasome Activation in Macrophages by Increasing Mitophagy and Decreasing Mitochondrial ROS

Figure 6

BMSCs inhibited NLRP3 inflammasome activation in BMDMs by increasing the mitophagy of BMDMs. (a) Electron microscopy images of BMDMs showing mitochondrial morphologic changes. Red arrows indicate mitophagy. Scale bar, 2 μm (top row), 600 nm (bottom row, left), and 400 nm (bottom row, right). (b) Confocal microscopy analysis of BMDMs stained for LC3 (green) and mitochondria (red) for colocalization as an indicator of mitophagy. Scale bar, 20 μm. (c–e) Inhibition of mitophagy results in caspase-1 activation. Western blot analysis for caspase-1 and IL-1β in lysates (c, d) and cytokine secretion (e) of BMDMs incubated for 6 h with 3-methyladenine (3-MA) (10 mM), which was followed by LPS and ATP. Error bars represent the means ± s.e.m. and . . The data are representative of three or more independent experiments.

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