A preliminary exploration of pancreatic ferroptosis: Inhibition of ferroptosis alleviates pancreatic injury through the NLRP3 pathway in acute pancreatitis

Abstract Objective The purpose of this study was to explore whether ferroptosis exists in acute pancreatitis (AP) and the effect of iron ions on the NLRP3 pathway. Materials and Methods A total of 45 male C57BL/6 mice were randomly divided into three groups (control, AP, AP+2, 2'-bipyridyl). A total of 12 injections (caerulein, 50 μg/kg) were given at one-hour intervals. The mice in the AP+2, 2'-bipyridyl group were pretreated with 2, 2'-bipyridyl (20 mg/kg) for 1 hour and then injected with caerulein. The mice in the control group were injected with an equal volume of normal saline. All of the mice were killed one hour after the last injection. The pancreases were harvested for histopathological evaluation, immunohistochemistry analyses and western blotting. One-way ANOVA and Student’s t test were performed. Results The ferroptosis inhibitor 2, 2'-bipyridyl can prevent the accumulation of iron ions, reduce the formation of lipid peroxides and alleviate injury in the process of AP, and reduce pancreatic inflammation through the NLRP3 pathway. Conclusion This experiment revealed the presence of ferroptosis in AP. The application of 2, 2'-bipyridyl can obviously alleviate pancreatic damage through the NLRP3 pathway.