IL6 and atherosclerosis: Our present study demonstrated that DHM prevents the osteogenic differentiation of hVICs via a c-KIT/IL-6-dependent pathway at noncytotoxic concentrations of 20 μM, as evidenced by decreased protein levels of two osteogenesis-specific genes (ALP and Runx2) and calcified nodule formation, which is consistent with several previous findings involving the protective role of DHM in atherosclerosis and vascular calcification (Liu et al., 2017; Yang et al., 2020; Feng et al., 2021).