TNF and septic shock: Though both the elderly and adult septic patients showed similar plasma endotoxin levels (7.6 vs. 7.4 pg/mL in average), the elderly patients showed higher serum TNF levels and were more susceptible to septic shock than the younger adult patients, leading to an extremely high mortality due to septic shock compared with younger patients (91% vs. 25%) (Figure 6) [21].