IL18R1 and Hypertension: Patients who had improved hypertension 6 months after surgery presented with increased expression levels of the inflammasome activation components (ASC, P2X7, and IL18R), cytokines (CCL8, CXCL2, IKKA, and IL6R), NOD-like receptors (NLRP1), and cell cycle/DNA regulators (TGFb) (Figure 5A).