Research
Hormonal
Exercise-induced IL-6 acts as an anti-inflammatory and metabolic regulator in muscle, activating AMPK to increase glucose uptake and fatty acid oxidation, distinct from the pro-inflammatory role of IL-6 in immune cells.
The IL-6 released by your muscles during exercise is not the harmful kind associated with infection. Instead, it acts as a signal to boost your metabolism, helping your muscles burn fat and sugar more efficiently. This specific type of IL-6 also helps reduce systemic inflammation.
GoodQualifiesHIGH confidence
when IL-6 is produced by macrophages, it leads to an inflammatory response, whereas muscle cells produce and release IL-6 without activating classical pro-inflammatory pathways.
Why this rating
Based on in vitro and human infusion studies.
Source
Muscles and their myokines
Bente Klarlund Pedersen · Journal of Experimental Biology · 2010
DOI 10.1242/jeb.048074
narrative_reviewCited 666×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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