Role of Inflammasome in Chronic Kidney Disease

The inflammasome is a multiprotein complex assembled by intracytoplasmic pattern recognition receptors and is a key component of the innate immune system for host defense. Inflammasome recruits and activates the proinflammatory protease caspase-1 by recognizing pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) or host-derived damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs). Activated caspase-1 cleaves the precursors of IL-1β and IL-18 to produce the corresponding mature cytokines. Several types of inflammasomes have been identified, such as NLRP3, NLRP1, IPAF (NLRC4) and AIM2. NLRP3 has recently been reported as a central pathogenic mechanism of chronic kidney disease (CKD). In this chapter, we briefly summarize the current knowledge about the roles of inflammasomes in the pathogenesis of CKD. A better understanding of the function of inflammasomes will provide unexpected opportunities to develop new therapies for kidney diseases by modulation of the innate immune system.