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. 2021 Oct 1;10(10):2618. doi: 10.3390/cells10102618

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© 2021 by the authors.

Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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DCA activates the NLRP3 inflammasome in HSC leading to early fibrosis. Stimulation with DCA (+ ATP) activates the NLRP3 inflammasome in HSC as indicated by elevated mRNA levels of Nlrp3 and Il-1b (A), increased levels of IL-1β in the supernatant (B) and activity of Caspase-1 (D). Microscopically, not only an upregulation of NLRP3 and formation of IL-1β vesicles were observed after immunofluorescent staining (C, arrow) but also a change of morphology to a more active, star-like shape with higher deposition of Collagen I (F). Upregulated mRNA levels of Ctgf and Tgfb (E) and an increase of the mean fluorescence intensity of Vimentin (G) as an early fibrotic protein marker confirmed this effect after DCA (+ATP) stimulation. * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.001.