IL6 and gastric cancer: Other studies found that the elemene could induce the apoptosis of gastric cancer cells associated with the increased expression levels of p-ERK protein and Bax mRNA, however the reduced level of Bcl-2 mRNA expression [37], in our research, we found IL-6 exerted the promotion effect on NF-kB/iNOS expression, high levels of NO production, as well as p-MEK/p-ERK in a time-dependent manner, which suggested that IL-6 promoted the apoptosis of HCCLM3 cells may through the activation of NF-kB/iNOS-NO and p-MEK/p-ERK.