The Mouse Reactive Pyroptosis Antibody Sampler Kit provides an economical means of detecting proteins that are used as readouts for pyroptosis. The kit includes enough antibodies to perform two western blot experiments with each primary antibody.

Pyroptosis is a regulated pathway of cell death with morphological features of necrosis, including cell swelling, plasma membrane pore formation, and engagement of an inflammatory response with the release of a number of damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs), such as HMGB1 and inflammatory cytokines like IL-1β and IL-18 (1,2). Pyroptosis is generally induced in cells of the innate immune system, such as monocytes, macrophages, and dendritic cells in the presence of pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) expressed on microbial pathogens or by cell-derived DAMPs. It is induced through assembly of inflammasomes triggering proteolytic activation of caspase-1 which then cleaves inflammatory cytokines like IL-1β and IL-18 to their mature forms (3). A critical feature of pyroptosis is the cleavage of Gasdermin D by caspase-1 and mouse caspase-11 (or human caspase-4/5) (4-6). Upon cleavage, the N-terminal fragment of Gasdermin D oligomerizes to form a pore, allowing secretion of inflammatory DAMPs and cytokines. Canonical inflammasome assembly typically consists of a cytosolic-pattern recognition receptor (PPR; a nucleotide binding domain and leucine-rich repeat [NLR] or AIM2-like family members), an adaptor protein (ASC/TMS1), and pro-caspase-1. Distinct inflammasome complexes can recognize distinct PAMPs and DAMPs to trigger pyroptosis. The best characterized pathway triggered by the NLR, NLRP3, occurs through a two-step process. The first step is a priming signal, NF-κB is activated to induce the expression of a number of inflammasome components including NLRP3, pro-IL-1β, and pro-IL-18. In the second activation step, caspase-1 is activated and Gasdermin D and cytokines are proteolytically activated. In a non-canonical pathway, caspase-4 and caspase-5 can directly trigger Gasdermin D cleavage in monocytes following LPS stimulation (5,7).