IL1B and atherosclerosis: We found that VSMCs (Myh11+) undergoing transdifferentiation to macrophages-like cells in human atherosclerotic plaques co-express cleaved caspase 1 as well as IL-1β, indicating the involvement of NLRP3 inflammasome activation in VSMCs phenotypic switch in human atherosclerosis (Figure 8a,b).