Abstract:The aim of this study was to investigate the role of NLRP3 inflammasome in heat stress injury in geese. Twenty-seven goslings were divided into three groups: A, B and C. The ambient temperature of group A (control group) was set at 25 ℃, and the heat treatment of group B and C was conducted at 38 ℃ and 40 ℃ for 1 h respectively. The brain, liver, spleen, lung, jejunum tissues of gosling in each group were collected. The tissues of group A and group C were sliced for pathological observation, and RNA was extracted from all tissues in each group. After reverse transcription, the expression levels of NLRP3 signaling pathway related genes and downstream inflammatory factors were detected by fluorescent quantitative PCR, and the A, B, C groups of gosling venous blood collection, using ELISA to detect the concentration of serum IL-1β. The results of tissue sections showed that the liver, spleen, lung, jejunum tissues in the 40 ℃ heat stress group showed obvious microstructure damage and increased accumulation of inflammatory cells. Fluorescence quantitative results showed that heat stress promoted the expression of HSP70 and HSP90 genes. The expression levels of NLRP3, ASC and Caspase-1 in spleen in the 38 ℃ stress group were significantly higher than those in control group (P<0.05). The expression levels of IL-1β in lung were significantly higher than those in control group (P<0.05). The concentration of IL-1β in serum also increased significantly (P<0.05). The results showed that heat stress induced tissue inflammation of gosling, and NLRP3 inflammasome may participate in the inflammatory injury process of spleen and lung induced by heat stress.