The mouse vascular smooth muscle cell line (
MOVAS-1) was obtained from the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC, Manassas, VA, USA). Cells were cultured in DMEM (Hyclone, Logan, UT, USA) containing 10%
FBS (Gibco, Waltham, MA, USA) and 1% (v/v) penicillin/streptomycin at 37 °C in a humidified incubator with 5% CO
2. Cells between passages 6 and 8 were used for all experiments. VSMC calcification was induced according to previous protocols [20 (
link), 21 (
link)]. Briefly, VSMCs were cultured with growing medium in the presence of β-glycerophosphate (β-GP) (10 mM;
G9422; Sigma, St. Louis, MO, USA) for 7 days. To investigate the role of
Irisin in VSMC calcification,
Irisin (067-29; Phoenix Pharmaceuticals Inc, Burlingame, CA, USA) at different concentrations (50 or 100 ng/ml dissolved in PBS) was used to treat VSMCs in the presence of β-GP medium for 7 days with medium changes every 2–3 days. For pharmacological treatment, the CASP1 inhibitor
VX-765 (10 μM;
HY-13205), NLRP3 inhibitor MCC950 (100 μM;
HY-12815A), ROS scavenger N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC, 20 μM;
HY-B0215), autophagy inducer rapamycin (200 nM;
HY-10219), autophagy inhibitor 3-methyladenine (3-MA, 5 mM;
HY-19312), and chloroquine (CQ, 25 μM;
HY-17589A) were purchased from MedChem Express (NJ, USA) and used to treat VSMCs according to the experimental design.
Pang Q., Wang P., Pan Y., Dong X., Zhou T., Song X, & Zhang A. (2022). Irisin protects against vascular calcification by activating autophagy and inhibiting NLRP3-mediated vascular smooth muscle cell pyroptosis in chronic kidney disease. Cell Death & Disease, 13(3), 283.