IKKε Protects Against Starvation-Induced NLRP3 Inflammasome and Pyroptosis in H9c2 Cells by Alleviating Mitochondrial Injury.

The deprivation of myocardial nutrition causes cardiomyocyte death and disturbance of energy metabolism. IKKε plays an important regulatory role in many biological events such as inflammation, redox reaction, cell death, etc. However, the more in-depth mechanism by which IKKε contributes to cardiomyocytes death in nutrition deprivation remains poorly understood. IKKε expression was knocked down by siRNA in H9c2 cells, and cells were cultured under starvation conditions to simulate ischemic conditions. Starvation triggered greater NLRP3 activation, accompanied by more IL-1β, IL-18 and caspase-1 release in the siIKKε H9c2 cells compared with the control H9c2 cells. Western blot and immunofluorescence showed that the IKKε konckdown promoted NLRP3 expressions and ROS release under starvation conditions. Furthermore, electron micrography and JC-1 analysis revealed that IKKε konckdown resulted in aggravated mitochondrial damage and more mitochondrial ROS (mtROS) released in vitro. Notably, Western blot analysis showed that IKKε deficiency activated the TBK1 and IRF3 signaling pathways to promote pyroptosis in vitro. Collectively, our results indicate that IKKε protects against cardiomyocyte injury by reducing mitochondrial damage and NLRP3 expression following nutrition deprivation via regulation of the TBK1/IRF3 signaling pathway. This study further revealed the mechanism of IKKε in inflammation and myocardial nutrition deprivation.