Although Th1 response is required to induce lesion healing in CL caused by L. major in humans and mice (Kane and Mosser, 2001; Murray et al., 2002; Trinchieri et al., 2003), excessive proinflammatory cytokines, mainly IFN-γ and TNF-α, can contribute to development of mucosal leishmaniasis (LM) (Follador et al., 2002) and to the tissue damage (Ribeiro-de-Jesus et al., 1998) produced by cellular recruitment, as observed in infections caused by L. braziliensis (Vargas-Inchaustegui et al., 2010) and L. amazonensis (Carneiro et al., 2015). This evidence concerns the gene TNF and infection.