Fig. 5

Hydrogen-activated endometrial cancer pyroptosis via ROS and the NLRP3 inflammasome. Pyroptotic cell death was demonstrated by the percentage of PI- and TUNEL-positive cells. a and b Hydrogen pretreatment for 24 h increased the number of PI-staining Ishikawa and HEC1A cells. c, d, e The percentage of TUNEL-positive cells was increased in H-CM-treated Ishikawa (d) and HEC1A cells (e) compared with the CM-treated group. H-CM-treated Ishikawa (d) and HEC1A cells (e) primed with NAC (5 nM) decreased the percentage of TUNEL-positive cells. Compared with H-CM group, MCC950 (10 nM) treatment of H-CM Ishikawa (d) and HEC1A cells (e) also decreased the percentage of TUNEL-positive cells, and LPS (10 ng/mL) treatment of H-CM Ishikawa (d) and HEC1A cells (e) increased the percentage of TUNEL-positive cells within 6 h. Data are expressed as mean ± S.D. *P < 0.05, # P > 0.05. Each experiment was performed in triplicate (See Additional file 7)