IL6R and triple-A syndrome: If increased availability of sIL-6R results in a dampening of the IL-6 trans-signaling pathway, this may explain potential protective effects in AAA and is consistent with previously observed protective effects in mouse models of sepsis34 and pancreatic and lung failure.35 As we found a consistent pattern of results when the trans-signaling pathway was selectively blocked in the mouse models, it suggests that this pathway could have a detrimental effect on AAA growth (Figure 6).