Although elevated circulating TNF‐α is considered a biomarker for cardiovascular disease, specific cardiomyocyte expression of TNF‐α has been associated with more progressive forms of heart failure including systolic dysfunction, whereby the relative gene dosage is proportional to disease severity (Francis, 1999; Kubota et al., 2001; Lachtermacher et al., 2010). Here, TNF is linked to cardiovascular disorder.