Unlike healthy controls, fibroblasts of patients with SSc-ILD have an inverse response to inflammation; in this population, there was increased production of the anti-apoptotic protein B cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2) in response to interleukin-6 (IL-6), whereas healthy controls expressed a pro-apoptotic protein Bcl-2-associated X protein (BAX) [48]. Here, IL6 is linked to interstitial lung disease.