Increasing evidence strongly indicates that the expression levels of NLRP3 and caspase-1 are significantly elevated in the kidneys of CKD or fibrosis patients (Vilaysane et al., 2010; Ke et al., 2018), suggesting that the NLRP3 inflammasome may be activated and involved in the regulation of renal fibrosis. Here, NLRP3 is linked to fibrosis.