IL6 and autoimmune disease: Bahar and co-workers [42] reported that the treatment of porcine colonic tissues ex vivo either with A. nodosum ethanol 80% or F. serratus aqueous extracts, caused a significant downregulation of the LPS-induced pro-inflammatory genes including IL6, IL8 and TNFA (encoding for the cytokines IL-6, IL-8 and TNF-α, respectively), comparable to that of dexamethasone (i.e., a corticosteroid medication used for the treatment of inflammation and autoimmune diseases).