TNF and necrotizing enterocolitis: In addition, in the NEC group, we observed a strong positive correlation between intestinal histopathological score and the expression levels of IL-6, TNF-α, and caspase-12 [correlation coefficients at 24, 48, 72 hours: 0.914, 0.894, and 0.926, respectively (P < 0.05 for all), Table 7].