Consistent with these results, while the expression of IL-1β, TNFα and TGF-β1 increased when Raw264.7 cells were bound to BLM-treated WT MLE-12, the expression of cytokines was observed to be diminished in the Raw 264.7 cells bound to BLM-treated Ninj1 KO MLE-12 (Fig. 6B). Here, TNF is linked to Bloom syndrome.