TNF and Sepsis: The standard description of ‘deactivated/reprogrammed’ monocytes in patients with sepsis is of reduced TNF-α and enhanced IL-10 secretion.25 Thus the effects we have seen with Mycoplasma may reflect a related but different phenomenon to classical ‘LPS tolerance’.25 Indeed Zakharova et al found a similar Mycoplasma-mediated suppression of IL-10 transcription in monocyte-like THP-1 cells.23 Although we can only speculate on the potential in vivo effects, it is possible that when Mycoplasma spp.