Taking into account an important role of TNF-α in the pathogenesis of inflammatory response and SSc progression [3,15,16], and the fact that the TNFA gene promoter has several single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) [5], we decided to analyse whether those genetic variabilities might contribute to SSc susceptibility, including the phenotypic expression of the disease [12]. The gene discussed is TNF; the disease is systemic sclerosis.