NLRP3 and hypertensive disorder: Hypertension-induced cardiac or vascular upregulation of NLRP3 and IL-1β has been observed in different animal models, such as spontaneously hypertensive rats, decompensated right ventricular hypertrophy rats, and deoxycorticosterone acetate-induced hypertensive mice.163,177,178 Interestingly, a transverse aortic constriction (TAC) was also found to increase NLRP3 and caspase-1 activity in cardiomyocytes, but not in non-cardiomyocytes.179 This suggested that the original site of NLRP3 inflammasome activation may be in cardiomyocytes.