TNF and fleck corneal dystrophy: We observed that phosphorylation levels of IKK (0.759 ± 0.104 vs. 0.311 ± 0.080; n = 8, P < 0.01; Fig. 1e), IκB-α (1.759 ± 0.104 vs. 0.311 ± 0.079; P < 0.01; Fig. 1f), and NF-κB p65 (0.646 ± 0.186 vs. 0.352 ± 0.138; P < 0.01; Fig. 1g) in lesion tissue were higher than those in peri-FCD, and the expression levels of IL-1β (0.452 ± 0.127 vs. 0.294 ± 0.098; P < 0.01; Fig. 1h) and TNF-α (0.439 ± 0.116 vs. 0.233 ± 0.083; P < 0.01; Fig. 1i) were increased in FCD lesion, which suggested that NF-κB pathway in lesion tissue was activated, and promote the expression levels of IL-1β and TNF-α.