IL6 and cardiac hypertrophy: Elevated IL-6 levels in macrophages [109] and cardiomyocytes [110] were shown to result in cardiac hypertrophy [111,112,113] and cardiac fibrosis via activation of IL-6 MAPK and IL-6-CaMKII-STAT3 pathways resulting in cardiac fibrosis and studies in rodents suggest that upregulated hypoxia-induced mitogenic factor (HIMF) in the heart may play a role [114].