<h4>Objectives</h4>To investigate the causal relationship between genetically predicted levels of five circulating cytokines - CXCL11, IL-2, IL-4, leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF), and neurotrophin-3 (NT-3) - and the risk of hypertensive encephalopathy using a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) approach.<h4>Methods</h4>Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) strongly associated with each cytokine (p<i><</i>5 × 10<sup>-8</sup>) were selected from publicly available GWAS data. The gene discussed is LIF; the disease is hypertensive encephalopathy.