In general, the long-term exposure of HM to acidic bile induced higher transcriptional levels of NF-κB transcriptional factor Rela, cancer-related inflammatory molecules Tnf and Il6, anti-apoptotic gene Bcl2, and oncogenic Egfr and Stat3, with statistically significant differences compared to HM exposed to acid alone (pH 3.0), or saline (pH 7.0) treated controls (Figure 4B). Here, TNF is linked to cancer.