Deletion of Inflammasome Components Is Not Sufficient To Prevent Fatal Inflammation in Models of Familial Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis

Abstract

Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) is a severe inflammatory condition that occurs in patients with genetic defects of cytotoxicity (familial HLH [FHL]) or secondary to other immunological disorders such as juvenile idiopathic arthritis. HLH is characterized by elevated levels of serum IL-18 and other cytokines. Moreover, a novel clinical entity has been recently identified in which constitutive NLRC4 inflammasome activation leads to severe HLH. Altogether, these clinical observations suggest that inflammasome activation is a central event in the development of all HLH forms and that inflammasome blockade could alleviate inflammation in FHL patients. To formally address this question, we invalidated genes encoding for Caspase-1 or the inflammasome adapter ASC in perforin-deficient mice that were subsequently infected with lymphocytic or mouse choriomeningitis virus as models of FHL. These deletions nearly abrogated IL-18 production occurring during HLH in all models. However, they did not reduce serum IFN-γ levels at the peak of the inflammatory reaction nor did they modulate inflammatory parameters at mid and late stages or fatal outcome. These data show that inflammasome blockade is not sufficient to prevent cytokine storm and lethality in mouse models of FHL and suggest that different pathophysiological mechanisms underlie HLH in genetic defects of cytotoxicity and genetic forms of inflammasome activation.