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Microbes or danger signals trigger inflammasome sensors, which induce polymerization of the adapter ASC and assembly of an ASC speck. ASC specks recruit and activate caspase-1, which induces IL-1β cytokine maturation and pyroptotic cell death. Here we show that after pyroptosis ASC specks accumulate in the extracellular space, where they promote further IL-1β maturation. In addition, phagocytosis of ASC specks induces lysosomal damage, nucleation of soluble ASC as well as caspase-1 and IL-1β activation in the recipient cell. ASC specks appear in bodily fluids from inflamed tissues and autoantibodies against ASC specks develop in patients and animals with autoimmune pathologies. Together, these findings reveal extracellular functions of ASC specks and a novel form of cell-to-cell communication.

Long-term epigenetic reprogramming of innate immune cells in response to microbes, also termed "trained immunity," causes prolonged altered cellular functionality to protect from secondary infections. Here, we investigated whether sterile triggers of inflammation induce trained immunity and thereby influence innate immune responses. Western diet (WD) feeding of Ldlr mice induced systemic inflammation, which was undetectable in serum soon after mice were shifted back to a chow diet (CD). In contrast, myeloid cell responses toward innate stimuli remained broadly augmented. WD-induced transcriptomic and epigenomic reprogramming of myeloid progenitor cells led to increased proliferation and enhanced innate immune responses. Quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis in human monocytes trained with oxidized low-density lipoprotein (oxLDL) and stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) suggested inflammasome-mediated trained immunity. Consistently, Nlrp3/Ldlr mice lacked WD-induced systemic inflammation, myeloid progenitor proliferation, and reprogramming. Hence, NLRP3 mediates trained immunity following WD and could thereby mediate the potentially deleterious effects of trained immunity in inflammatory diseases.

SummaryCD14 is a 55-kD protein found both as a glycosylphosphatidyl inositol-linked protein on the surface of mononudear phagocytes and as a soluble protein in the blood. CD14 on the call membrane (mCD14) has been shown to serve as a receptor for complexes of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) with LPS binding protein, but a function for soluble CD14 (sCD14) has not been described. Here we show that sCD14 enables responses to LPS by cells that do not express CD14. We have examined induction of endothdial-leukocyte adhesion molecule 1 expression by human umbilical vein endothdial cells, interleukin 6 secretion by U373 astrocytoma cells, and cytotoxicity of bovine endothelial ceUs. None of these cell types express mCD14, yet all respond to LPS in a serumdependent fashion, and all responses are completely blocked by anti-CD14 antibodies. Immunodepletion of sCD14 from serum prevents responses to LPS, and the responses are restored by addition of sCD14. These studies suggest that a surface anchor is not needed for the function of CD14 and further imply that sCD14 must bind to additional proteins on the cell surface to associate with the cell and transduce a signal. They also indicate that sCD14 may have an important role in potentiating responses to LPS in cells lacking mCD14.

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