IL18 and infection: Besides, some studied have showed that upon infection with the attaching/effacing intestinal pathogen Citrobacter rodentium, mice deficient in NLRP3 and ASC displayed an increased bacterial colonization and dispersion, more severe weight loss and exacerbated intestinal inflammation as compared to WT mice, indicating an early activation of NLRP3 in intestinal epithelial cells could limit pathogen colonization and prevent subsequent pathology and intestinal inflammation, and ascribed this protective effect to the production of cytokines IL-1β and IL-18 (56, 98).