Pyroptosis

Pyroptosis is a form of programmed cell death associated with antimicrobial responses during inflammation. In contrast to apoptosis, pyroptosis requires the function of caspase-1, and has been studied in the context of salmonella-infected macrophages. Recently, it was shown that Caspase-1 is activated during pyroptosis by a large supramolecular complex termed the pyroptosome. Only one large pyroptosome is formed in each macrophage, within minutes after infection. Biochemical and Mass Spectroscopic analysis revealed that this pyroptosome is largely composed of dimers of the adaptor protein ASC.