TNF and ischemic stroke: Subjects with acute ischemic stroke showed in comparison with subjects without ischemic stroke higher peripheral percentage of CD4+ (50.21 ± 8.31% vs 34.12 ± 6.81%; p < 0.0001) and CD28null (5.70 ± 2.33% vs 2.78 ± 0.93%; p < 0.0001) cells; furthermore, subjects with stroke showed higher serum levels of TNF-α (18.7 ± 3.28 pg/ml vs 12.34 ± 4.54 pg/ml; p = 0.035) and IL-6 (22.10 ± 12.21 pg/ml vs 4.22 ± 1.44 pg/ml; p < 0.0001) (see Table 1).