TNF and Duchenne muscular dystrophy: In addition, the expression level of IL-10, which plays a particularly important role in mediating the switch from the M1 to the M2 phenotype through suppression of pro-inflammatory responses in dystrophic muscles, was observed to increase concurrently with those of TNF-α and IFN-γ during the acute stage of DMD (8- to 15-fold higher compared to that observed in wild-type muscles), thereby promoting muscle repair [10, 42].