NLRP3 and obstructive sleep apnea syndrome: Diaz-Garcia et al. (2022) proposed a model for how this two-step activation process occurs in OSA: first, IH primes the inflammasome by activating transcription factors hypoxemia inducible factor-1a (HIF-1a) and nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-kB), which increase expression of NLRP3, ASC, and caspase 1.