Canonical Nlrp3 inflammasome activation links systemic age-related inflammation with functional decline

This experiment was performed to analyze the contribution of NLRP3 inflammasome activation to age-related changes in hippocampal RNA. The hypothesis was that decreased inflammasome activation would reduce hippocampal inflammation. Results indicate that inflammasome knockout animals are protected from age-related changes in hippocampal gene expression Gene expression profiles of young (1 month) and old (21-23 month) wild type, CIAS -/- and ASC -/- mouse hippocampal tissue were compared. Total mRNA was extracted using Trizol.