Interestingly, Arlehamn et al. reported that high extracellular potassium inhibited IL-1ß release from cells after bacterial infection with P. aeruginosa and S typhimurium, which was dependent on the NLRC4 inflammasome, but that potassium leakage from cells could not be detected by flame photometry [49]. Here, NLRC4 is linked to bacterial infectious disease.