TNF and cardiac hypertrophy: In addition, we found that H/R increased the levels of proinflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6) in cardiomyocytes, all of which were previously shown to be directly involved in the progression of myocardial I/R injury, myocardial dysfunction, vascular wall remodeling, heart failure, and cardiac hypertrophy [25, 26].