TNF and rheumatoid arthritis: Our experiments also further demonstrated that suppression of CYLD by sh-CYLD enhanced mRNA expression and the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines in RA-FLSs, including TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-8; aggravated the activity of NF-κB in RA-FLS nuclei and IκBα in RA-FLS cytoplasm; and decreased the level of total IκBα in RA-FLS cytoplasm.