Elevated circulating levels of tumor necrosis factor in severe chronic heart failure
B. Levine, J. Kalman, L. Mayer, H.M. Fillit, M. Packer

Ssetting the stage for the cytokine hypothesis in heart failure, this study was the first one to describe elevated levels of proinflammatory cytokine, tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-a) in patients with advanced heart failure...

Increased circulating cytokines in patients with myocarditis and cardiomyopathy
A. Matsumori, T. Yamada, H. Suzuki, Y. Matoba, S. Sasayama

In this paper, Matsumori and colleagues elucidate the potential role of cytokines in the pathogenesis of cardiomyopathy and myocarditis...

Tumor necrosis factor soluble receptors in patients with various degrees of congestive heart failure
R. Ferrari, T. Bachetti, R. Confortini, C. Opasich, O. Febo, A. Corti, G. Cassani, O. Visioli

This is the first study to have identified the prognostic role of soluble tumor necrosis factor (TNF) in patients with severe congestive heart failure (CHF) and cardiac cachexia...

Tumor necrosis factor–alpha and tumor necrosis factor receptors in the failing human heart
G. Torre-Amione, S. Kapadia, J. Lee, J.B. Durand, R.D. Bies, J.B. Young, D.L. Mann

It is thought that the effects of cytokines are initiated by their binding to specific receptors that exist on the membranes of most mammalian cell types, including the adult cardiac myocyte...

Proinflammatory cytokine levels in patients with depressed left ventricular ejection fraction: a report from the Studies of Left Ventricular Dysfunction (SOLVD)
G. Torre-Amione, S. Kapadia, C. Benedict, H. Oral, J.B. Young, D.L. Mann

This was the first study to document a correlation between proinflammatory cytokine levels and the severity of the disease process in patients with heart failure...

Cytokines and cardiac contractile function
R.A. Kelly, T.W. Smith

For quite a while, investigators have been noticing that proinflammatory cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor (TNF) play a role in the cardiac dysfunction that accompanies systemic sepsis, viral myocarditis, and cardiac allograft rejection, but also in advanced heart failure (HF) syndromes resulting from diverse pathogenic insults...

Dilated cardiomyopathy in transgenic mice with cardiac-specific overexpression of tumor necrosis factor–alpha
T. Kubota, C.F. McTiernan, C.S. Frye, S.E. Slawson, B.H. Lemster, A.P. Koretsky, A.J. Demetris, A.M. Feldman

This is the landmark paper describing the dilated cardiomyopathy phenotype in transgenic mice with cardiac specific overexpression of tumor necrosis factor–alpha (TNF-a)...

Randomised investigation of effects of pentoxifylline on left-ventricular performance in idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy
K. Sliwa, D. Skudicky, G. Candy, T. Wisenbaugh, P. Sareli

A number of studies attempting to suppress cytokine production in patients with heart failure have employed strategies that are designed to block tumor necrosis factor (TNF) expression at the transcriptional or translational levels...

Safety and efficacy of a soluble P75 tumor necrosis factor receptor (Enbrel, etanercept) in patients with advanced heart failure
A. Deswal, B. Bozkurt, Y. Seta, S. Parilti-Eiswirth, F.A. Hayes, C. Blosch, D.L. Mann

Since the original reports of elevated levels of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) in patients with heart failure and the recognition that TNF may contribute to the progression of heart failure, there has been increasing speculation that anticytokine therapy targeting TNF may be beneficial in patients with heart failure...

Serum from patients with severe heart failure downregulates eNOS and is proapoptotic: role of tumor necrosis factor–alpha
L. Agnoletti, S. Curello, T. Bachetti , F. Malacarne , G. Gaia, L. Comini, M. Volterran, P. Bonetti, G. Parrinello, M. Cadei M, P.G. Grigolato, R. Ferrari

This is a very original and important paper addressing the relationship of cytokine activation and endothelial dysfunction...