TNF and autism: In some studies, biomarkers of inflammation or immune dysregulation have been correlated with ASD severity (Mostafa and Kitchener, 2009; Al-Ayadhi and Mostafa, 2011, 2012, 2013; Khakzad et al., 2012; Mostafa and Al-Ayadhi, 2012) and an elevation in TNF-alpha has been reported in ASD lymphocytes (Malik et al., 2011a) and in amniotic fluid in children who develop autism (Abdallah et al., 2013).