TNF and cardiac hypertrophy: Even though TNFα and IL-6 were also lower in the ramipril group, the lower LV hypertrophy observed in the DEX group may be related to the lower levels of the pro-inflammatory cytokines TNFα, IL1-α and IL-6, TGFβ and IFN-γ, since the association of these cytokines with myocardial hypertrophy has been shown [24,51,57].