TNF and Alzheimer disease: Monocytes and monocyte-derived macrophages appear to play a complex role in AD, as these cells help to phagocytize and thereby clear the Aβ in AD patients while simultaneously arousing increased inflammation through release of potentially damaging proinflammatory cytokines such as IL-1α/β, IL-6, TNFα, IL-8 and TGFβ (5).