TNF and cardiomyopathy: As a stress‐response protein, it has a cytoprotective effect on the heart during ischemic injury and infectious myocarditis.6, 7 Nevertheless, when expressed at sufficiently high concentrations and persistently elevated, TNF‐α induces progressive left ventricular remodelling and dysfunction, cardiomyopathy, cardiomyocyte hypertrophy and apoptosis.8, 9, 10 Several lines of evidence have demonstrated that heart failure is related to the increased expression of TNF‐α–induced myocyte apoptosis.