Interestingly, a few cytokines and chemokines including TNF-α, IL-5, MCP-1, Rantes, IL-8 and M-CSF were remarkably resistant to cleavage, indicating that they may have been selected for stability against proteolytic degradation not to jeopardize the recruitment and activation of primarily monocytes/macrophages, neutrophils and eosinophils to the area of infection after neutrophils have entered the site of infection. The gene discussed is TNF; the disease is infection.