IL6R and myxoma: To examine whether signaling pathways, such as STAT3 and Akt, were involved in the IL-6 + sIL-6R-induced IL-6 autoregulation, the cultured myxoma cells were pre-treated with pharmacological inhibitors of STAT3 and Akt for 2 h, followed by stimulation with IL-6 + sIL-6R for 4 h to measure IL-6 mRNA in the myxoma cells.