Cellular responses to tumor necrosis factor.

TNF is a proinflammatory cytokine that plays an important role in many physiological and pathological conditions through the regulation of immunological reactions. Many of TNF functions have been proven to be cell type-specific, and the specificity of TNF-induced cellular responses in a given cell is determined by the specific intracellular signaling pathways that are activated by TNF. Although current information is insufficient to sort out how the cell type specificity is controlled by the different intracellular signaling pathways, a number of signaling pathways that are commonly activated in many types of cells by TNF have been revealed. This review weighs the current knowledge of these TNF-induced signaling pathways.