The size of the IL-6 and TNF-α promoter regions spanning the sequences upstream of the transcriptional start site as well as part of the first exon will be determined from literature search and using a database for reference, CpG islands will be first identified for primer design (http://www.cpgislands.com/). For analysis of methylation, a commercial kit will be used (EpiTect Plus LyseAll Bisulfite Kit from Qiagen, Hilden, Germany).