Research
Hormonal
SPARC acts as a priming signal for the NLRP3 inflammasome in macrophages, driving chronic inflammation associated with obesity.
Chronic inflammation in obesity is driven by SPARC activating immune cells. Reducing SPARC levels, as seen with weight loss, reduces this inflammation.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Mechanistically, SPARC activates the NLRP3 inflammasome at the priming step and downregulation of SPARC lowers macrophage inflammation in adipose tissue, while excess SPARC activated macrophages via JNK signaling.
Why this rating
Clear mechanistic pathway established in macrophages.
Source
Reduction of SPARC protects mice against NLRP3 inflammasome activation and obesity
Seungjin Ryu et al. · Journal of Clinical Investigation · 2023
DOI 10.1172/jci169173
mechanism_only · n=8Cited 26×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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