TNF and acute kidney injury: Numerous studies have evaluated the probability that the genetic variability of cytokines could lead to alterations of the immune responses, with the occurrence of AKI in sepsis and septic patients (Phumeetham et al., 2012), thus indicating the role of TNF-α in creating and/or promoting the inflammatory reaction in critically ill patients (Winkelman, 2007; Zhang et al., 2017).