Atorvastatin inhibited TNF-α induced matrix degradation in rat nucleus pulposus cells by suppressing NLRP3 inflammasome activity and inducing autophagy through NF-κB signaling.

Intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) is one of the main causes of lower back pain (LBP). It results from an imbalance between the degradation and synthesis of extracellular matrix (ECM) components in nucleus pulposus (NP) cells. Atorvastatin, an HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor, plays a vital role in many diseases, such as cardiovascular disease and osteoarthritis. However, the effect of atorvastatin on IDD is unclear. Herein, we demonstrated that atorvastatin affects matrix degradation induced by TNF-α and demonstrated the mechanism by which TNF-α modulates matrix metabolism in rat NP cells. Real-time PCR, western blotting and immunofluorescence staining were performed to detect the mRNA and protein expression of related genes. mRFP-GFP-LC3 adenovirus plasmid transfection and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to detect cell autophagy. NLRP3 inhibitor and lentiviral vectors containing shRNA-NLRP3 were used to show the effect of NLRP3 on autophagic flux and the NF-κB signaling pathway. The results revealed that atorvastatin might suppress matrix degradation induced by TNF-α by suppressing NLRP3 inflammasome activity and inducing autophagic flux. Moreover, atorvastatin suppressed NF-κB signaling induced by TNF-α. NF-κB signaling inhibition suppressed NLRP3 inflammasome activity, and NLRP3 inhibition suppressed NF-κB signaling activation induced by TNF-α. NLRP3 inhibition or NLRP3 knockdown induced autophagic flux in the presence of TNF-α. Overall, the present study demonstrated that atorvastatin might suppress matrix degradation induced by TNF-α and further revealed the crosstalk among NLRP3 inflammasome activity, autophagy and NF-κB signaling.