A prospective cohort study of 73 term infants exposed to perinatal asphyxia showed that those who died or were diagnosed with cerebral palsy at a 1 year follow up, were associated with higher levels of IL-1, IL-6 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α in heel-stick blood samples collected on the first or second day of birth (Foster-Barber et al., 2001). This evidence concerns the gene TNF and asphyxia.