NLRP3 and asthma: We next assessed correlations between on IL-1β release by LPS + nigericin-treated PBMCs from patients with severe asthma and BMI, control, eosinophilic and neutrophilic inflammation in sputm and lung function, to determine whether increased LPS-induced NLRP3 inflammasome priming and nigercin-induced activation in PBMCs is associated with specific features of disease.