TNF and viral myocarditis: In addition, clinical works demonstrated an association between depressed myocardial function and the elevated TNF-α mRNA and protein levels (Habib et al., 1996; Torre-Amione et al., 1996), suggesting that TNF-α plays an important role in the viral myocarditis pathology of the infiltration of inflammatory cells and activities of inflammatory mediators (Navarro and Mora, 2006).