TNF and colitis: Han et al. assessed the effect of oral administration of Saccharomyces cerevisiae on DSS-induced colitis in mice and found that the anti-inflammatory properties of this yeast were related to the β–glucan in its cell wall, which is a polysaccharide with immunomodulatory effect that inhibited the overexpression of DSS-induced pro-inflammatory factors including TNF–a, IL–6 and IL–8 [39].