TNF and Cirrhosis: Cytokine production was assessed after in vitro stimulation of PBMCs for 12 days, and the authors found that it remained impaired in all HCV infected patients regardless of cirrhosis status, with low frequencies of IFN-γ, TNF-α and MIP-1β production in HCV-specific CD8+ T cells in both groups and no increase at follow-up 36 weeks post EOT (26).