STAT3 and cardiac hypertrophy: Moreover, IL-6 has also been incriminated in the pathogenesis of cardiac hypertrophy and dysfunction (Frieler and Mortensen, 2015; Mann, 2015; Prabhu and Frangogiannis, 2016), through the activation of the Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II and STAT3 pathways (Kunisada et al., 1996).