In a gerbil model, these changes are thought to be linked, not to the infection itself, but to the infection-induced inflammatory response, as methylation changes temporally reflected the expression levels of inflammation-related genes such as CXCL2, IL-1β, NOS2, and TNFα, and treatment with an anti-inflammatory drug (cyclosporin A) led to a blockade in the DNA methylation pattern changes previously seen without affecting colonization by H. pylori (Kurkjian et al., 2008; Niwa et al., 2010). Here, TNF is linked to infection.