Zhang Hong, Wang Zhengchao
Provincial Key Laboratory for Developmental Biology and Neurosciences, Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Science and Technology for Medicine of Ministry of Education, College of Life Sciences, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, China.
Front Cell Dev Biol. 2020 Jan 24;7:379. doi: 10.3389/fcell.2019.00379. eCollection 2019.
Renal fibrosis is a common pathological process where certain primary or secondary kidney diseases can continue to progress to the end-stage of the kidney disease; however, the molecular mechanisms underlying renal fibrosis remain unclear. Recently, research focusing on examining the function of inflammasomes has attracted a great deal of attention, and data derived from these research projects have increased our understanding of the effects and regulation of inflammasomes during renal fibrosis. Based on this, the present review summarizes recent findings in regard to NLRP3 inflammasome functions during various kidney diseases, and these findings indicate that the NLRP3 inflammasome not only mediates the inflammatory response but is also associated with pyroptosis, mitochondrial regulation, and myofibroblast differentiation during renal fibrosis. These novel findings provide us with a more in-depth understanding of the pathogenesis of renal fibrosis and will aid in the identification of new targets that can be used for the prevention and treatment of this disease.
肾纤维化是一种常见的病理过程，某些原发性或继发性肾脏疾病可继续发展至终末期肾病；然而，肾纤维化的分子机制仍不清楚。最近，聚焦于研究炎性小体功能的研究引起了广泛关注，这些研究项目所获得的数据增进了我们对肾纤维化过程中炎性小体的作用及调控的理解。基于此，本综述总结了关于NLRP3炎性小体在各种肾脏疾病中功能的最新研究发现，这些发现表明，NLRP3炎性小体不仅介导炎症反应，还与肾纤维化过程中的细胞焦亡、线粒体调控及肌成纤维细胞分化相关。这些新发现使我们对肾纤维化的发病机制有了更深入的理解，并将有助于识别可用于预防和治疗该疾病的新靶点。
