TNF and inflammatory bowel disease: As a key transcription factor, NF-κB plays an important role in the activation of genes involved in immune and acute phase responses (Schottelius and Baldwin, 1999) and is an attractive candidate for its roles in IBD pathogenesis (Schottelius and Baldwin, 1999) which can increase the expression of many cytokines, enzymes, and adhesion molecules involved in chronic inflammatory diseases, including IL-1β, TNF-a, IL-2, IL-6, IFN-γ, and IL-12 which possess NF-κB binding sites and are transcriptionally regulated by NF-κB (Barnes and Karin, 1997; Schottelius and Baldwin, 1999).