TNF and chronic kidney disease: Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) or receiving hemodialysis treatment are under persistent low-grade inflammatory status [1–6] and have been suggested to experience poorer clinical conditions and higher mortality when they had persistent elevated levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-8 (IL-8), or tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) [7–9].