IL6 and heart disorder: As proinflammatory/profibrotic mediators are also augmented in cardiac disease [29, 30, 31], the effect of a range of proteins, including Ang II, TGFβ1, IL-1β, IL-1α, TNFα, IL-6 and IL-6 in combination with the sIL-6R on Cx43 mRNA expression was examined in CFs (Figure 2).