Gasdermin D-mediated hepatocyte pyroptosis expands inflammatory responses that aggravate acute liver failure by upregulating monocyte chemotactic protein 1/CC chemokine receptor-2 to recruit macrophages

Figure 1 The levels of pyroptosis-associated inflammatory cytokines and proteins increase in human acute liver failure. A: Serum levels of alanine aminotransferase, total bilirubin, ammonia, and international normalized ratio; B: Serum levels of inflammatory cytokines interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-18, tumor necrosis factor-alpha, and interferon-γ detected by flow cytometry; C: Expression levels of caspase 1, caspase 4, full-length gasdermin D, and cleaved N-terminal fragment of gasdermin D in liver tissues from acute liver failure cases and controls detected using Western blot with GAPDH as the internal reference. Data are presented as the mean ± square error. ^aP < 0.05, ^bP < 0.01, and ^eP < 0.001. ALT: Alanine aminotransferase; TBIL: Total bilirubin; INR: International normalized ratio; IL-1β: Interleukin-1β; IL-18: Interleukin-18; TNFα: Tumor necrosis factor-alpha; IFN-γ: Interferon-γ; GSDMD-FL: Full-length gasdermin D; GSDMD-N: Cleaved N-terminal fragment of gasdermin D; ALF: Acute liver failure.