TNF and Sepsis: Sera collected on day four from patients with severe sepsis harbored significantly higher concentrations of TNF-α (5.7 vs. 0.7 pg/ml, P < 0.001), IL-6 (24.8 vs. 3.8 pg/ml, P < 0.001), and IL-10 (30.0 vs. 11.9 pg/ml, P = 0.040) than sera collected from healthy controls (Table 2).