TNF and atherosclerosis: Atherosclerosis is usually recognized as a hyperlipidemia-induced chronic inflammatory process of arterial wall.2 ELISAs revealed that compared with PBS-injected or scrambled shRNA-injected mice, RNCR3 shRNA-injected mice had higher levels of inflammatory factors in blood plasma, such as TNF-α, CCL2, and IL-6 (Figures 3d–f), suggesting that RNCR3 knockdown could aggravate hyperlipidemia-induced inflammation.