IL6 and myocardial infarction: To investigate whether peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) isolated from SMuRFless patients with MI are functionally different from controls, we stimulated PBMCs ex vivo with Toll-like receptor 4 and 2 ligands (lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and Pam3Cys) for 24 h and measured cytokine production of TNF-α, IL-6, IL-1β, IL-1Ra, and IL-10.