TNF and intervertebral disk degenerative disorder: We demonstrate here that disc degeneration induced by a needle stab‐injury rat model caused an acute inflammatory response, associated with increased levels of pro‐inflammatory cytokines, IL‐6, IL‐1β, and TNF‐α—particularly at day 7—and is consistent with previous investigations.3, 14, 15, 16, 52 Furthermore, we demonstrate that PEMF can blunt these acute inflammatory effects.