Abstract: Objective To explore the role of nucleotide-binding and oligomerization domain-like receptors （NLR） P3 inflammasome in patients with alcoholic liver diseases（ALD）. Methods The liver tissues from 12 patients with alcoholic hepatitis （AH），4 with alcoholic liver cirrhosis （ALC） and 12 healthy persons were obtained in this study，and NLRP3，Caspase 1 and IL-1 beta mRNA levels were detected by RT-PCR. Plasma IL-1β levels were assayed by ELISA in 84 patients with ALD[20 with AH，48 with ALC（19 with Child-Pugh class A，22 with class B and 7 with class C），16 with severe alcoholic hepatitis（SAH） and 40 healthy persons. The correlation of plasma IL-1 β level to biochemical indexes was analyzed. Results The hepatic NLRP3 mRNA levels in patients with AH and ALC were（28.1±2.8） and（28.4±3.1），significantly higher than that in healthy control [（8.8±1.8），P<0.01]，the Caspase-1 mRNA levels were（18.8±1.2） and （24.6±1.8），significantly higher than that in healthy persons [（15.1±1），P<0.05]，IL-1β mRNA levels were（17.0±2.9） and （16.3±4.4），significantly higher than that in healthy control [（7.0±1.1），P<0.01]，and NLRP3 mRNA levels was positively correlated to IL-1β mRNA or Caspase 1 mRNA（P<0.05）；plasma IL-1β levels in patients with AH，ALC and SAH were（36.1±1.8） pg/mL，（28.0±1.6） pg/ml and（32.5±2.4） pg/ml，respectively，significantly higher than that in healthy persons [（1.5±0.8） pg/ml，P<0.01]；the plasma IL-1β levels in patients with Child-Pugh class A，B and C had no significant difference （P>0.05）；plasma IL-1β level in patients with ALD was positively correlated to serum ALT or the ratio of AST/ALT. Conclusion NLRP3 inflammasome and proinflammatory cytokines IL-1β are involved in patients with ALD，and they might play an important roles in liver inflammatory process.

Key words: Alcoholic liver diseases, Nucleotide-binding and oligomerization domain-like receptors P3, Caspase-1, Interleukin-1β