Renal inflammation contributes to the pathogeneses of hypertension. This study was designed to determine whether B-cell lymphoma 6 (BCL6) attenuates renal NLRP3 inflammasome activation and inflammation and its underlying mechanism. Male spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and Wistar-Kyoto rats (WKY) were used in the present study. Angiotensin (Ang) II or lipopolysaccharides (LPS) was used to induce inflammation in HK-2 cells, a human renal tubular epithelial (RTE) cell line. NLRP3 inflammasome was activated and BCL6 was downregulated in the kidneys of SHR. Either Ang II or LPS suppressed BCL6 expression in HK-2 cells. BCL6 overexpression in HK-2 cells attenuated Ang II-induced NLRP3 upregulation, inflammation and cell injury. The inhibitory effects of BCL6 overexpression on NLRP3 expression and inflammation were also observed in LPS-treated HK-2 cells. BCL6 inhibited the NLRP3 transcription via binding to the NLRP3 promoter. BCL6 knockdown with shRNA increased NLRP3 and mature IL-1β expression levels in both PBS- or Ang II-treated HK-2 cells but had no significant effects on ASC, pro-caspase-1 and pro-IL-1β expression levels. BCL6 overexpression caused by recombinant lentivirus expressing BCL6 reduced blood pressure in SHR. BCL6 overexpression prevented the upregulation of NLRP3 and mature IL-1β expression levels in the renal cortex of SHR. The results indicate that BCL6 attenuates Ang II- or LPS-induced inflammation in HK-2 cells via negative regulation of NLRP3 transcription. BCL6 overexpression in SHR reduced blood pressure, NLRP3 expression and inflammation in the renal cortex of SHR.

The effects of Cu addition on microstructure, mechanical properties and damping capacity of Mg-3%Ni based alloy were investigated by using tensile tests, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope and dynamic mechanical analyzer. The results show that Cu addition could reduce the size of -Mg dendrites and a new binary phase Mg2Cu can be identified, which mostly distributes among the inter-dendrites in the form of typical lamellar-like eutectic microstructure and improve the mechanical properties. In low strain amplitude, with the increase of Cu addition, the damping capacities of Cu contained alloys change little, while in high strain range, the internal friction values decrease gradually with the grain refinement and increasing content of eutectic phase.

The influence of Y on the microstructure and damping capacity of AZ91D based alloys was investigated by optical microscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and dynamic mechanical analysis. The results show that, with increasing Y content, the grain size of α-Mg matrix decreases tremendously and the distribution of β-Mg17Al12 phase is transformed from discontinuous network to fine particles. Meanwhile, a needle-shaped Al4MgY phase mainly distributing at the grain boundaries is identified. The damping capacity of the studied alloys shows sustained enhancement with increasing temperature. As to the strain dependent damping capacity, with the increase of Y content, the damping value of AZ91D alloy decreases gradually before Y content reaches to 0.5wt.%, and fluctuates when Y addition is between 0.5wt.%~0.9wt.%. G-L dislocation model was employed to explain the effects of parameters on damping capacity of magnesium alloy.