Monitoring of Inflammasome Activation of Macrophages and Microglia In Vitro, Part 2: Assessing Inflammasome Activation

InflammasomesInflammasomes are macromolecular complexes that assemble upon the detection of cytoplasmic pathogen-associated or danger-associated signals and induce a necrotic type of cell death termed pyroptosisPyroptosis, facilitating pro-inflammatory cytokine release. InflammasomesInflammasomes play a critical role in innate immunity and inflammatory response; however, they have also been associated with multiple diseases, including autoinflammatory and neurodegenerative conditions. In the following chapter, we describe methods to detect inflammasomeInflammasomes activation and its downstream effects, including detection of ASCASC oligomerization, detection of activated caspase-1Caspase-1 and cleaved IL-1β, as well as read-outs for inflammasome-mediated cell death.