Human resistin is critical to activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome in macrophages
Fig 5
Macrophages are the main source of NLRP3 in hypoxic mouse lungs and PH patient lungs.
(A) Immunofluorescence images of NLRP3 and immune cell markers in lung tissues of 4-day hypoxic mice and lung sections from PH patients. Lung sections were stained with anti-NLRP3 (red) and/or Mac2 (green), MPO (green), or CD79b (green). The images are shown at 100 × magnification. Representative photograph of 6 mice per group and 3 human lung samples. (B) Immunofluorescence images of lung tissue slices from PH patients show hResistin colocalization with NLRP3 in macrophages. Sections were stained with anti-human resistin (red) and co-stained with anti-Mac2 (green) and anti-NLRP3 (cyan) antibodies. The arrowheads point to cells positively stained for hResistin, Mac2, and NLRP3. Separate channels are displayed in the lower panels. Original magnification: 100 × , 200 × , and 400 × . (C) Immunofluorescence images show colocalization of NLRP3 and BTK in macrophages. Sections were stained with anti-human BTK (green) and co-stained with anti-Mac2 (red) and anti-NLRP3 (cyan) antibodies. The arrowheads point to cells positively stained for human macrophages, BTK, and NLRP3. Separate channels are displayed in the lower panels. Original magnification: 400 × . BTK, Bruton’s tyrosine kinase; hResistin, human resistin; MPO, myeloperoxidase; NLRP3, nucleotide-binding domain–like receptor protein 3; PH, pulmonary hypertension. Created in BioRender. Lam, W. (2026) https://BioRender.com/1zhhut0.