Pyroptosis is induced following
inflammation via activation of the NLRP3
inflammasome.
Lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced acute
inflammation causes pyroptosis in renal tubular epithelial cells, which aggravates kidney damage and is involved in physiopathological processes in multiple renal diseases. Metadherin (Mtdh) induces
inflammation by NLRP3
inflammasome activation. Specifically, it induces inflammatory injury in the kidney by activating the
nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) signaling pathway, which is involved in NLRP3
inflammasome activation. However, the role of Mtdh in pyroptosis in renal tubular epithelial cells is unclear. Therefore, we investigated whether Mtdh participates in pyroptosis in LPS/
adenosine triphosphate (
ATP)-treated NRK-52E cells by activating the NLRP3
inflammasome and NF-κB signaling pathway. We induced pyroptosis in NRK-52E cells with LPS/
ATP, after which Mtdh was silenced via transfection with
small interfering RNA. LPS/
ATP upregulated Mtdh expression and induced pyroptosis and NLRP3
inflammasome activation in NRK-52E cells. However, downregulation of Mtdh expression resulted in the alleviation of pyroptosis in LPS/
ATP-treated NRK-52E cells. Additionally, activation of the NLRP3
inflammasome and NF-κB signaling pathway was inhibited. This demonstrates that downregulation of Mtdh expression results in the inhibition of pyroptosis in LPS/
ATP-treated NRK-52E cells through the suppression of NLRP3
inflammasome activation, which occurs via inhibition of the NF-κB signaling pathway.