Inactive caspase-12 (caspase-12) reduces cytokine release in response to bacterial lipopolysaccharide during infections. Caspase-12 reduces reduces activation of NF-kappa-B in response to TNF. Caspase-12 does not have protease activity. The most frequent caspase-12 variant has a stop codon instead of Arg-125, giving rise to a truncated protein (Csp12-S). The variant Arg-125 (Csp12-L) is rare, e, Xenopus/Amphibian,cept in some populations from sub-Saharan Africa. Csp12-L may increase the susceptibility to severy sepsis, and may also increase the mortality rate in sepsis patients.