TNF and pulmonary fibrosis: Ample evidence supports that SiO2 activates inflammatory cytokines such as IL-1β, IL-6, TGF-β, TNF-α, growth factors, and CCL and promotes pulmonary fibrosis (Boitelle et al., 1997; Blanco-Perez et al., 2021), suggesting that increased inflammatory cytokine levels may be used as typical biomarkers for the clinical diagnosis of silicosis.