Background
Profound inflammation that mediated by innate immune sensors can be observed in retina, and is considered to play an important role in the pathogenesis of all-trans-retinal (atRAL)-caused retinal degeneration. However, the underlying mechanism remains elusive.
Methods
Cell viability was detected with Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8). The concentration of IL-1β was evaluated using IL-1β ELISA Kits. The levels of autophagy-related proteins were measured by Western blotting. The measurement of autophagic flux was performed with virus vectors packing tandem monomeric mCherry-eGFP-tagged LC3B.
Results
We focused on studying the effects of atRAL on macrophage cell line THP-1 and determining the underlying signal pathway through pharmacological and genetical manipulation. We first found the maturation and release of IL-1β was regulated by the activation of NLRP3 inflammasome. We secondly found that mitochondria-associated reactive oxygen species (ROS) were involved in the regulation of NLRP3 inflammasome activation and caspase 1 cleavage. Finally, we found that atRAL functionally activated autophagy in THP-1 cells, and atRAL-caused NLRP3 inflammasome activation is suppressed by autophagy. Overall, our results show atRAL simultaneously activates NLRP3 inflammasome and autophagy in THP-1 cells, and increasing autophagy leads to the inhibition of the excessive activation of NLRP3 inflammasome. Our study provides new insight into the pathogenesis of aging related retina degeneration.