TNF and Intervertebral disk degeneration: TNF-α is a potent pro-inflammatory cytokine that was closely associated with intervertebral disk degeneration, though it may also induce a downstream cascade of other cytokines involved in CLBP such as interleukin-6 or interleukin-1β (Risbud and Shapiro, 2014; Lim et al., 2020).