Figure 3.

Effect of cadmium and/or topiramate on NLRP3 protein expression in testes of rats. The co-treatment with topiramate lowered the testicular protein expression of NLRP3 which was increased by cadmium administration. The determination of NLRP3 protein expression was carried out by detection of its immunostaining (brown color) in testes of animals at 400× magnification. The slides were counterstained with hematoxylin. (A) Quantitative analysis of NLRP3 immunostaining where topiramate lowered the immunostaining of NLRP3 [H (3, 20) = 43.31, p < 0.0001]. The quantification was presented as the area % of the brown immunostaining relative to the microscopic field’s whole area (in each section, six non-overlapping fields were investigated). Results are demonstrated as the mean ± standard error of the mean (SEM). *** p < 0.001, or **** p < 0.0001 signifies statistical significance versus the control group; ^## p < 0.01 signifies statistical significance versus cadmium chloride-treated group. (B,C) Representative photomicrographs showing minimal expression in the control and topiramate-treated control groups, respectively. (D) Representative photomicrographs showing increased immunostaining of NLRP3 in cadmium-intoxicated group. (E) Representative photomicrographs showing that topiramate downregulated the protein expression of NLRP3 as indicated by lowered immunostaining. NLRP3, the nucleotide-binding domain (NOD)-like receptor family, pyrin domain-containing 3. TPM, topiramate; Cd, cadmium chloride.