TNF and tuberculosis: Cultured AM from the TB patients released higher levels of TNF-α (1143.0 ± 88.2 pg/ml, n = 10, p < 0.001) (Fig. 5A) and IL-6 (392.1 ± 21.2 pg/ml, n = 10, p < 0.05) (Fig. 5B) into the culture medium than those of the normal subjects (499.4 ± 114.5 pg/ml and 296.6 ± 36.6 pg/ml, respectively, n = 7).