Table 1.

Ovalbumin-induced changes at mRNA level in mouse lung.

Gene product*	Relevance	Ratio** OVA/SAL	P value***
Ccl12	Chemokine of CC family which attracts eosinophils and monocytes	10.64	0.008
Ccl7	Chemokine of CC family which attracts monocytes and regulates macrophage function	8.98	0.018
NAIP 1 (neuronal apoptosis inhibitor protein)	Endogenous caspase inhibitor which binds to the inflammasome in neuronal and nonneuronal cell types	8.57	0.000
Cxcl3	CXC chemokine which controls migration and adhesion of monocytes	8.31	0.016
IL-6	Th2 cytokine which promotes airway inflammation in mice	3.08	0.050
IL-33	IL-1 like cytokine which mediates eosinophilia in mouse asthma model	2.54	0.001
ASC	Adaptor protein which recruits caspase-1 to the NLRP3 complex	2.11	0.001
Caspase 1	When activated, it processes pro-IL1b and pro-IL18 to mature cytokines	2.07	0.000
Aim2 (absent in melanoma gene 2)	Component of the AIM2 Inflammasome which activates caspase-1 independent of NLR proteins	2.00	0.002
NLRP1a	Component of the NLRP1 Inflammasome which activates caspases 1 and 5	1.07	0.658
NLRC4 (IPAF)	Component of the NLRP4 Inflammasome which mediates response to S. typhimurium	0.90	0.434
IL-1β	Member of IL-1 family of cytokines	0.48	0.003
NLRP3	Component of the NLRP3 Inflammasome which activates caspases 1	0.28	0.000
IL-18	Member of IL-1 family of cytokines	0.09	0.000

*Data from a superarray experiment on lung RNA from 8 SAL and 8 OVA-treated mice. Genes relevant to the asthma/inflammasome pathways are shown. **Fold up- or downregulation for OVA-treated mice relative to saline-treated mice was determined by the ΔΔCt method. Ratios are in decreasing order; ratios >1 represent increased expression with airway inflammation and ratios <1 represent decreased expression with airway inflammation. Upregulation of Caspase-1 and downregulation of IL-1β were also confirmed by an “in-house” RT-PCR assay. ***Student T-test.