In accordance with the aforementioned histological alterations, the bladder tissues in the KC group exhibited higher levels of transcripts involved in inflammation (eg, tumor necrosis factor alpha [Tnf-α], chemokine C-X-C motif ligand 10 [Cxcl10], and interleukin 4 [Il4]) and apoptosis (eg, caspase recruitment domain family member 10 [Card10]) than the sham group (Fig. 5a). The gene discussed is TNF; the disease is keratoconus.