Incubation of nondegenerative AF cells with IL-1Ra or IL-4RAb prior to mechanical stimulation had no effect on the baseline gene expression of ADAMTS4. Pretreatment with either IL-1Ra or IL-4RAb followed by mechanical stimulation inhibited the load-induced decrease in ADAMTS4 gene expression compared to baseline, although this finding did not achieve statistical significance compared to the untreated loaded sample for both IL-1Ra- and IL-4RAb-treated cells (Figure 2b). Here, ADAMTS4 is linked to atrial fibrillation.