NLRP3 and chronic kidney disease: In fact, the NLRP3 inflammasome not only mediates the inflammatory response but is also associated with myofibroblast differentiation during renal fibrosis, occurring through a crosstalk with the TGF-β/Smad signalling pathway [52], as also demonstrated by the significantly elevated expression levels of NLRP3 and caspase-1 in the kidneys of CKD patients [12].