Fig. 2

Ceramide promotes TXNIP expression and NLRP3 inflammasome activation. HUVECs were treated with 0, 5, 10, 20 μM ceramide for 12 h. Effects of ceramide on the protein expression: NLRP3 (B), TXNIP (C), GSDMD (D), GSDMD-NT (E), Caspase-1 (F), CASP1 P20 (G). Effects of ceramide on the mRNA expression: NLRP3 (H), TXNIP (I), GSDMD (J), Caspase-1 (K). Caspase-1 activity assay kit (L) was used to detected effect of ceramide on caspase-1 activity. Values were reported as the mean ± standard deviation in (A–L) (n = 3). The expression of β-actin was used as an internal control. ^*P < 0.05, ^**P < 0.01 and ^***P < 0.001, compared with the control group