These experiments led us to next investigate whether the timing of TNF production in both the NFATp−/− and WT mice was functionally important in the immune control of TB infection in these mice and/or the observed high TNF levels in lung and peripheral blood in the NFATp−/− mice infected with TB were simply a marker of increased disease and earlier activation of DC or other monocytic cells where expression of TNF is not dependent upon NFATp. Here, NFATC2 is linked to tuberculosis.