However, our findings do not support the idea that an increase in IL-6 secretion by HMECs stimulated with SSc-IgG is mediated by functional anti-AT1-R and/or ETA-R Abs, since the use of specific inhibitors of AT1-R and ETA-R didn’t reduce the secretion of IL-6 in vitro. Here, AGTR1 is linked to systemic sclerosis.