TNF and diabetes mellitus: Proinflammatory cytokines C-reactive protein, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, and interleukin (IL)-6 all demonstrate increased expression in diabetes (Peters et al., 1986; Ford, 1999; Festa et al., 2000; Müller et al., 2002; Temelkova-Kurktschiev et al., 2002).