TNF and colitis: A significant increase in IL-1β (17.5 ± 7.6 vs. 2.3 ± 0.6, p < 0.05) and TNFα (4.6 ± 2.0 vs. 1.5 ± 0.5, p < 0.05) mRNA was found in untreated rats with colitis compared to the control animals with restored levels of IL-1β (17.0 ± 2.7 vs. 17.5 ± 7.6, p < 0.005) and in the TNFα mRNA levels (1.4 ± 0.4 vs. 4.6 ± 2.0, p < 0.005) of rats with colitis receiving the synbiotic (Figure 5A,B).