NLRP3 and systemic sclerosis: This group also showed that mice that lack NLRP3 are resistant to a model of SSc: thus, while subcutaneous injections with bleomycin induce excessive collagen deposition that results in marked skin thickening and severely compromised lung architecture in wild-type mice, NLRP3-/- mice display almost no skin thickening and the lung architecture is normal.