TNF and Arthritis: TNF-α and IL-6 are key cytokines that drive inflammation in arthritis; TNF-α levels were elevated in patients with loss-of-function mutations in the DNase II gene (Rodero et al., 2017), and both TNFα and IL-6 levels were high in DNase II−/−Ifnar1−/− mice (Kawane et al., 2006; Kawane et al., 2010).