IL4 and Insulin resistance: Recently, an interesting role for IL-6 in the alternative activation of monocytes has been revealed: Mauer et al. demonstrated that IL-6 is required for IL-4-dependent M2 macrophage polarisation, and that the depletion of the IL-6Rα chain of the IL-6 receptor in myeloid cells induced insulin resistance and impaired glucose homeostasis (Mauer et al. 2014).