TNF and systemic inflammatory response syndrome: It has been demonstrated that TNF‐induced lethal SIRS in mice, which is used as a model system for sepsis but also for inflammatory bowel disease, is strongly mediated by cell death in the IECs (Piguet et al, 1998; Van Hauwermeiren et al, 2013, 2015) and is associated by efflux of gut microbes into the spleen and MLNs.