While their role in host defense is well documented, these genes encode the main proinflammatory mediators of the two most important classes of sterile inflammation disorders: the autoinflammatory diseases (e.g. Crohn's disease, gout, autoinflammatory syndromes, Behcet's disease) in which inflammation is mediated by the IL-1 family, and the autoimmune diseases (e.g. rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematous, type 1 diabetes) in which the TNF family and complement play a central role [46]. Here, TNF is linked to rheumatoid arthritis.