IL6 and metabolic syndrome: The analysis conducted to identify potential confounding factors found that none of the cardiovascular risk factors, including BMI, smoking, dyslipidemia, hypertension, and diabetes mellitus, was independently associated with NE levels, nor with the inflammatory markers (IL-1β, IL-6, HIF-1α) or oxidative stress indicators (SOD-1 and LOX-1) (see Supplementary Tables S1–S6 in the Supplementary Material).