Recently, it has been found that abnormal activation of inflammasomes, the intracellular multiprotein complexes, plays an important role in the pathogenesis and the development of inflammatory diseases. To determine whether the NOD-like receptor family pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome is involved in chronic inflammatory condition reported in glomerulonephritic- hemodialysis (HD) patients, we investigated the mRNA levels of NLRP3, CASP-1, ASC, IL-1β, IL-18, NLRC4, and P2X7 in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) collected from 28 glomerulonephritic-HD patients. To confirm the mRNA quantification results, we investigated the IL-1ß content and Caspase 1 activity in serum and PBMC lysates, respectively. Compared with PBMCs derived from healthy subjects, genes encoding proinflammatory cytokines such as IL-1β and IL-18 as well as NLRP3, ASC, CASP-1 were markedly overexpressed in those derived from patients. Moreover, there was no significant difference between the expression level of P2X 7 mRNA in PBMCs isolated from glomerulonephritis-HD patients and controls. The serum level of active IL1-β and cell lysate CASP-1 activity were up-regulated in patients compared to controls. We also revealed that PBMCs isolated from glomerulonephritis-HD patients had elevated mRNA levels of NLRC4 compared to controls, suggesting the priming of NLRC4 inflammasome. These results revealed that the NLRP3-ASC-caspase-1 axis might have a role in increased inflammation severity reported in glomerulonephritic patients undergoing hemodialysis. These findings provide new insights into molecular mechanisms underlying chronic inflammation in HD- glomerulonephritic patients. Additionally, the NLRP3 inflammasome pathway can be attractive as a potential therapeutic target for complication avoidance in HD- glomerulonephritic patients.
Keywords: Glomerulonephritis; Hemodialysis; Inflammasomes; NLRC4; NLRP3.