NLRP3 and rheumatoid arthritis: A number of studies showed that NLRP3 inflammasome may play a vital role in the pathogenesis of active RA, including high expression of NLRP3 in the synovial tissue of collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) mice (Zhang Y. et al., 2016) and the peripheral blood cells of patients with active RA (Choulaki et al., 2015).