• Camille N Immanuel, Bin Teng, Brittany Dong, Elizabeth M Gordon, Joseph A Kennedy, Charlean Luellen, Andreas Schwingshackl, Stephania A Cormier, Elizabeth A Fitzpatrick, and Christopher M Waters.
• Division of Pediatric Critical Care, Department of Pediatrics, Children's Foundation Research Institute at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital, University of Tennessee Health Sciences , Memphis, Tennessee.
• Am. J. Physiol. Lung Cell Mol. Physiol. 2019 Mar 1; 316 (3): L418-L427.

AbstractWe previously showed that mice deficient in apoptosis signal-regulating kinase-1 (ASK1) were partially protected against ventilator-induced lung injury. Because ASK1 can promote both cell death and inflammation, we hypothesized that ASK1 activation regulates inflammasome-mediated inflammation. Mice deficient in ASK1 expression (ASK1-/-) exhibited significantly less inflammation and lung injury (as measured by neutrophil infiltration, IL-6, and IL-1β) in response to treatment with inhaled lipopolysaccharide (LPS) compared with wild-type (WT) mice. To determine whether this proinflammatory response was mediated by ASK1, we investigated inflammasome-mediated responses to LPS in primary macrophages and bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMDMs) from WT and ASK1-/- mice, as well as the mouse alveolar macrophage cell line MH-S. Cells were treated with LPS alone for priming or LPS followed by ATP for activation. When macrophages were stimulated with LPS followed by ATP to activate the inflammasome, we found a significant increase in secreted IL-1β from WT cells compared with ASK1-deficient cells. LPS priming stimulated an increase in NOD-like receptor 3 (NLRP3) and pro-IL-1β in WT BMDMs, but expression of NLRP3 was significantly decreased in ASK1-/- BMDMs. Subsequent ATP treatment stimulated an increase in cleaved caspase-1 and IL-1β in WT BMDMs compared with ASK1-/- BMDMs. Similarly, treatment of MH-S cells with LPS + ATP caused an increase in both cleaved caspase-1 and IL-1β that was diminished by the ASK-1 inhibitor NQDI1. These results demonstrate, for the first time, that ASK1 promotes inflammasome priming.

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