Kaur Khushpreet, Alippe Yael, Wang Chun, Semenkovich Nicholas P, Bhagat Saumya, Khanna Kunjan, Li Yongjia, Pokhrel Nitin, Peterson Timothy, Veis Deborah J, Abu-Amer Yousef, Faccio Roberta, Mbalaviele Gabriel
Division of Bone and Mineral Diseases, Washington University School of Medicine; St. Louis, MO 63110, USA.
Data Science Institute, Medical College of Wisconsin; Milwaukee, WsI 53226, USA.
bioRxiv. 2025 Jul 31:2025.07.28.667255. doi: 10.1101/2025.07.28.667255.
Osteoclasts (OCs) differentiate from macrophages in response to RANKL. Here, we investigated the role of the NLRP3 inflammasome in mouse macrophages, with or without exposure to RANKL. Unexpectedly, we found that NLRP3 expression gradually declined during osteoclastogenesis but could be restored with LPS treatment. LPS and nigericin robustly activated this inflammasome in macrophages, as expected, but not in OCs. Mechanistically, we identified Tmem178, a protein that restrains Ca release from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and highly expressed in OCs, as an inhibitor of this inflammasome. Notably, NLRP3 inflammasome activation was robust in OCs lacking Tmem178 or wild-type (WT) OCs exposed to high calcium concentrations. studies demonstrated that under the conditions where OCs efficiently release Ca from bone, inflammasome formation was enhanced. Furthermore, deletion of rescued osteopenia in mice. Thus, we found that Tmem178 uniquely restricts Ca release from ER in OCs, thereby suppressing NLRP3 inflammasome activation.
破骨细胞(OCs)在RANKL的作用下从巨噬细胞分化而来。在此,我们研究了NLRP3炎性小体在暴露于或未暴露于RANKL的小鼠巨噬细胞中的作用。出乎意料的是,我们发现NLRP3的表达在破骨细胞生成过程中逐渐下降,但可通过LPS处理恢复。正如预期的那样,LPS和尼日利亚菌素能强烈激活巨噬细胞中的这种炎性小体,但在破骨细胞中则不然。从机制上讲,我们鉴定出Tmem178,一种抑制内质网(ER)钙释放且在破骨细胞中高表达的蛋白质,作为这种炎性小体的抑制剂。值得注意的是,在缺乏Tmem178的破骨细胞或暴露于高钙浓度的野生型(WT)破骨细胞中,NLRP3炎性小体的激活很强烈。研究表明,在破骨细胞从骨中有效释放钙的条件下,炎性小体的形成会增强。此外,敲除 在 小鼠中挽救了骨质减少。因此,我们发现Tmem178独特地限制了破骨细胞中内质网的钙释放,从而抑制了NLRP3炎性小体的激活。