IRF4 and atrial fibrillation: Initially, we evaluated the expression of the key inflammatory TFs (STAT3, STAT1, STAT2, NFKB1, IRF1, IRF8, HDAC1, EGR2, IRF4, and STAT6) mentioned above in AF, and most of them exhibited higher expression in mice with NTDs (Additional file 6: Fig. S6).