Since it has been reported that TNF-α up-regulates MUC2 expression in human intestinal cancer LS180 cells [23] and colonic epithelial HT-29 cells [24], it is possible that the induction of MUC2 mRNA expression observed in this study is not an effect of SAA3, but is rather due to the effect of TNF-α induced by rSAA3 because TNF-α also enhances NF-κB independently of the TLR4/MD2-NF-κB signaling pathway. Here, TLR4 is linked to intestinal cancer.