TNF and Hepatic fibrosis: It is well established that the Th1 cytokines, IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha, both trigger the release of soluble ICAM-1 (sICAM-1) (Momosaki et al., 1995; Paolieri et al., 1997; Leung, 1999) and are known to play key roles in the modulation (Dessein et al., 2004; Bonnard et al., 2006) and aggravation of hepatic fibrosis (Henri et al., 2002; Booth et al., 2004), respectively.