Do cytokines play a role in cardiovascular disease?

     Many people can guess that there is a high probability of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. The article we discussed this past week was, "Proinflammatory cytokines are increased in type 2 diabetic women with cardiovascular disease". The three main cytokines discussed were IL-6, TNF-alpha, and IL-1beta. IL-6 stimulates C-reactive protein release from the liver, causes insulin resistance and causes to the proinflammatory state. TNF-alpha impairs insulin signaling and causes insulin resistance in individuals. IL-1beta is an important mediator of the inflammatory response, and is involved in cell proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis. 

     The three cytokines were experimented on in 4 types of individuals; women with no cardiovascular disease(CV) and no diabetes(D), women with CV and no D, women with no CV and D, women with CV and D. The various experiments showed the levels of the three cytokine levels in each individual. The main point of the idea was that the levels of the cytokines were to have a multiplying effect in individuals who have both CV and D. One important point that we discussed in class was that although the graphs in this article are displayed as though there is a multiplying effect, the writers have just shown it in a way although the amounts are really not too much out of the norm. 

     In one of my statistics classes, the professor always tells us that there is always a way to manipulate the data and our job as statisticians is not to fool the viewers with these false truths. I always feel like a superhero, in how I need to use my power for good to save the innocent. 

     On another note, IL-6 and TNF-alpha both showed the "multiplying effect" but the IL-1beta did not display the same effect in their results of experimentation. One thing I had mentioned in class was the fact there was high range of age differences between the individuals in each category which there people may develop diseases if they were at the same age as the others as well. The fact of the age difference was one which struck me as most odd of why they chose to choose those individuals rather than comparing more similar individuals with the various disease states.