TNF and type 1 diabetes mellitus: Inflammatory insults such as pro-inflammatory cytokines contribute to T1D pathogenesis, and others have shown that treatment of mouse and human pancreatic islets and β cell lines with cytokines (IL1β, IFNγ, TNFα, IFNα) recapitulates many of the in vivo molecular changes seen in early and late stages of T1D (4, 5).