TNF and myocardial infarction: Upregulation of pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as TNFα, interleukin 1beta (IL1β), and IL6, usually unexpressed in the normal heart, has been clearly shown both in animal and human models during myocardial infarction [6–8]; the acute intramyocardial gene expression of TNFα, IL1β, and IL6 involves both the infarct area and the noninfarcted myocardium, but it begins to decrease towards baseline after 1 week [9].