When MMC from AIDS patients were depleted of CD14+ cells (ie. CD14− MMC), they produced less TNF-α (median: 9.7 pg/ml, p = 0.032) and IL-6 (median 2.2 pg/mL, p = 0.002) than unfractionated MMC, suggesting that CD14+ macrophages played a major role in the expression of these pro-inflammatory cytokines (Fig. 6). This evidence concerns the gene IL6 and AIDS.