No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

inflammatory properties. 4 This study aims to examine whether dexmedetomidine could attenuate LPS-induced pyroptosis in astrocyte cultures. The human astrocytoma cell line (1321N1) was cultured and treated with LPS (1e100 ng/ml) in the absence or presence of dexmedetomidine (0.1mM) for 24 hours. The pyroptosis executioner gasdermin D (GSDMD) and NLRP3 inflammasome (ASC-caspase1) expression, histone translocation, and cell death were assessed in various experiments using western blot, immunofluorescent staining and propidium iodide flow cytometry, respectively. LPS caused cell death in a dose-dependent manner. Pretreatment with dexmedetomidine significantly decreased cell death from 30% induced by 100ng/ml LPS to 14.6% (p < 0.01). Dexmedetomidine also significantly decreased LPS-induced ASC, caspase1 and GSDMD expressions (all p < 0.05). Histone translocation was detected after the cells were treated with LPS whilst histone was still located within the nuclei in the majority of the cells and cellular integrity was also maintained with dexmedetomidine pretreatment. Our data suggest that dexmedetomidine provides protective effects via attenuating pyroptotic cell death triggered by LPS in astrocytes. Further study is needed to determine the underlying mechanisms and reproducibility in an in vivo setting.