TNF and inflammatory bowel disease: SOCS2 is also induced by a subset of proinflammatory cytokines [e.g. IL-6, IL-1β and TNF-α, which are elevated in IBD and mediate the inflammatory response (Starr et al., 1997; Greenhalgh and Hilton, 2001; Rico-Bautista et al., 2006; Sanchez-Muñoz et al., 2008; MacRae et al., 2009)].