Early-life lipopolysaccharide exposure potentiates forebrain expression of NLRP3 inflammasome proteins and anxiety-like behavior in adolescent rats.

Background: Neonatal inflammation may affect brain development and lead to cognitive and emotional deficits at adolescence and adulthood. The nucleotide binding and oligomerization domain-like receptor family pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3) is the core component of NLRP3 inflammasome, which may involve in neuroinflammation. We explored if early-life exposure to the bacterial endotoxin lipopolysaccharide (LPS) could promote the expression of proteins related to NLRP3 inflammasome, including NLRP3, the apoptosis-associated speck-like protein (ASC) and cysteiny aspartate-specific protease (Caspase-1) in the forebrain, and behavioral alteration in adolescent rats.