TNF and osteoarthritis: Chondrocytes apoptosis is part of the important mechanisms of articular cartilage degeneration in OA pathogenesis.[2, 12] Proinflammatory cytokines as IL-1β and tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α), via triggering apoptosis of chondrocytes, played a key role in the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis articular, [13, 14, 15] which in turn increased the inflammatory mediators.