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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2015 Mar 1.
Published in final edited form as: Hepatology. 2014 Jan 30;59(3):898–910. doi: 10.1002/hep.26592

Fig. 3. Global NLRP3 inflammasome activation results in hepatocyte pyroptosis.

Fig. 3

TUNEL staining of Nlrp3 CreZ mutant liver samples showed significantly more positive cells than WTs. Livers from Nlrp3 CreZ mice displayed TUNEL positive cells throughout the tissue with several dense areas of TUNEL positive cells indicative of pyroptotic cell death (n≥5 for each group) (A, B). Conclusively, Nlrp3 CreZ mutant mice showed more Casp1 and PI double-positive hepatocytes (upper right quadrant) than WT - representative scatterplots are shown in panel C. An approximately fifteenfold increase in Casp1 positive cells was detected in Nlrp3 CreZ (red curve) in comparison to WT (gray curve), the entire population of hepatocytes was analyzed. Casp1 and PI double-positive cells were also detected at a twentyfold increased level in hepatocytes of Nlrp3 CreZ mutants; (n≥7 for each group).