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Figure 3 Several factors such as altered nutrition, inactivity, age, fetal metabolic programming, and genetic propensity are known activators of the innate immune system. Cytokine production leads to insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, and other components of the metabolic syndrome, such as dyslipidemia. Activated innate immunity is a possible common antecedent of both type 2 diabetes and atherosclerosis. IL-6 = interleukin-6; TNF = tumor necrosis factor-alpha. Modified with permission from Pickup (12).