A study on the molecular mechanism of cardiac protection of procarboxylpeptidase in MIRI rats based on the NLRP3 signaling pathway

Figure 1.. Effects of PRCP on MIRI and LV function. (A) Echocardiography assessing EF and FS in rats after MIRI.PRCP reduces infarct size and enhances myocardial contractile function. (B) The infarct size in MIRI rats was evaluated using the 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) staining method. After TTC staining, normal tissues remain unstained, while infarcted tissues appear pale white. The area of infarction is marked by the red arrow in the figure. (C) Histogram of the EF results in (A). (D) Histogram of the FS results in (A). Data are presented in the form of Mean ± SEM. Different letters denote significant differences.

Figure 2.. Effect of PRCP on MIRI-induced mitophagy pyroptosis. (A) Apoptosis of tissue cells was observed through TUNEL staining. The MIRI group displayed a much higher level of cardiomyocyte pyroptosis (by approximately 10%) compared with the Normal group and the Sham group. And after PRCP or nicorandil pretreatment, the number of TUNEL-positive cells was notably decreased. Scale bar = 50 μm. N = 3. (B) Histogram of the number of TUNEL-positive cells based on (A). Data are displayed in the form of mean ± SEM. Different letters denote significant differences.

Figure 3.. Effects of PRCP on MIRI-induced myocardial tissue injury. (A) Representative HE staining. In the figure, blue arrows mark eosinophils, red arrows mark neutrophils, green arrows mark lymphocytes, black arrows mark macrophages, and purple arrows mark plasma cells. Scale bar = 50 μm.

Figure 4.. Effects of PRCP on NLRP3 signaling pathway. (A) Western blot was used to detect NLRP 3, GSDMD, Caspase-1, IL-18, IL-1β. (B) Relative expression of NLRP3, GSDMD, Caspase-1, IL-18, IL-1β mRNA was detected by q-PCR. There were more than three of these duplicates. Mean ± SEM were used to express the data. Different letters denote significant differences.