Fig. 3

Adiponectin attenuates PA-induced apoptosis, NLRP3 inflammasome activation, and podocyte injury in vitro. a, The viability of cells treated with adiponectin at different concentrations (1, 2, 4, 8 µg/ml) was evaluated by CCK-8 assay. ** p < 0.01 vs. the control group, ^#p < 0.05 vs. the PA group. b, The apoptosis rate was determined by flow cytometry. *** p < 0.001 vs. the control group, ^###p < 0.001 vs. the PA group. c, ROS production was assessed by a fluorometric assay. *** p < 0.001 vs. the control group. d, qRT-PCR analysis of nephrin, podocin, desmin, NLRP3, caspase-1, and NF-κB. * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001 vs. controls. e-f, Western Blot was performed to measure the protein levels of nephrin, podocin, desmin, NLRP3, pro-caspase1, cleaved caspase-1, ASC, NF-κB, and p-NF-κB. *** p < 0.001 vs. controls. g, The levels of IL-18 and IL-1β in cell culture supernatants were assessed by ELISA. *** p < 0.001 vs. controls. Data are presented as mean ± SEM from three independent experiments