TNF and infection: Expression of genes within the periapical lesion after 14 days of infection was confirmed with real time PCR, where nociceptor-ablation resulted in a significant upregulation of IL1a (p = 0.01), Tnf (p = 0.01), and Nlrp3 (p < 0.01), whereas ablated mice had reduced expression of Alox5 (p = 0.03) (Supplementary Fig. S1).