IL6 and thromboangiitis obliterans: On the opposite, in tears of TAO patients, 3 cytokines exhibited significantly more elevated levels in non-smoker patients (Fig. 4 and Supplementary Information S3) compared to smokers (IL-6: p-value = 0.012, IL-8: p-value = 0.025, TNF-α: p-value = 0.022).