TNF and acute respiratory distress syndrome: The IKBα/NFκB inflammatory pathway is one of the most important inflammatory signaling pathways in cells, encoding many pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as IL-6, IL-1β, and TNF-α, which are involved in the gene expression of sepsis-induced inflammation and the pathophysiological process of ALI, and play a central role in regulating the inflammatory response [21, 22].