Cytokine Profile in a Cohort of Healthy Blood Donors Carrying Polymorphisms in Genes Encoding the NLRP3 Inflammasome

BACKGROUND: The NLRP3 inflammasome has been recognized as one of the key components of the innate immunity by sensing a diversity of insults. Inflammasome activation results in the maturation of the pro-inflammatory cytokines interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-18. Increased production of IL-1β is found in patients with gain-of-function polymorphisms in genes encoding the NLRP3 inflammasome. Since approximately 5% of the Swedish population are heterozygote carriers of these combined gene variants, their impact on inflammasome status and a relationship on disease development is therefore highly relevant to study. The present study investigates levels of inflammasome-produced cytokines as a measure of inflammasome activation in healthy individuals carrying Q705K polymorphism in the NLRP3 gene combined with C10X in the CARD8 gene. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Genotyping of 1006 healthy blood donors was performed for the polymorphisms Q705K in the NLRP3 and C10X in the CARD8 genes. IL-1β, IL-18, IL-33, as well as a number of other pro-inflammatory cytokines, were analyzed by Luminex or ELISA in plasma from individuals carrying the polymorphisms and in age and gender matched non-carrier controls. RESULTS & DISCUSSION: The prevalence of the polymorphisms was in line with previous studies. Plasma levels of IL-1β and IL-33 were elevated among carriers of combined Q705K+C10X polymorphisms compared to controls, whereas no difference was found for IL-18 and the other cytokines measured. Moreover, carriers of C10X or Q705K per se had similar plasma levels of IL-1β as non-carriers. These data suggest that the combined polymorphisms create inflammasomes with increased basal activation state, which might provide a more favourable innate immune response. In spite of this, it could also represent the mechanisms by which the inflammatory loop is triggered into a long-term inflammatory phenotype.