IL6 and major depressive disorder: Considering the limited evidence for the role of these metabolites in the mechanism underpinning the anti-inflammatory and neurogenic activities of ω-3 PUFAs in the context of depression, we used our aforementioned, validated in vitro model of ‘depression in a dish’ [13, 20, 21, 29–33] exposing immortalised human hippocampal progenitor cell line HPC0A07/03C to candidate ‘depressogenic’ cytokines, IL1β, IL6 and IFN-α, resulting in a reduction in neurogenesis and an increase in neuronal apoptosis [13, 20, 21].