Chemokines play an important role in pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis (MS), mediating migration of leukocytes into the central nervous system. CCL2 (MCP-1) chemokine is expressed in astrocytes in MS lesions. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of a two-year treatment with IFN-beta 1a on serum CCL2 level in MS patients. CCL2 concentration in sera of 18 relapsing-remitting MS (RR-MS...

CNS neurons in adult mammals do not spontaneously regenerate axons after spinal cord injury. Preconditioning peripheral nerve injury allows the dorsal root ganglia (DRG) sensory axons to regenerate beyond the injury site by promoting expression of regeneration-associated genes. We have previously shown that peripheral nerve injury increases the number of macrophages in the DRGs and that the act...

Therapeutic angiogenesis may be applied in medical conditions to promote stimulation of angiogenesis. Angiogenesis is a multistep process, which includes endothelial cell proliferation, migration, and tube formation, which is mediated by various angiogenic polypeptides. Thus, studies that elucidate the cellular mechanisms involved in these processes are necessary to develop novel therapeutic st...

Macrophage recruitment to adipose tissue in obesity contributes to enhanced adipose tissue inflammatory activity and thus may underlie obesity-associated metabolic dysfunction. Obese adipose tissue exhibits increases in CC chemokine ligand 2 (CCL2, or monocyte chemoattractant protein-1), an important macrophage-recruiting factor. We therefore hypothesized that elevated CCL2 may contribute to ob...

OBJECTIVE To define the mechanisms underlying the accumulation of monocytes/macrophages in the islets of Langerhans. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We tested the hypothesis that macrophage accumulation into the islets is caused by overexpression of the chemokine CCL2. To test this hypothesis, we generated transgenic mice and evaluated the cellular composition of the islets by immunohistochemistr...

OBJECTIVES Recruitment of macrophages is essential to the pathogenesis of nasal polyps (NP), since this disease is inflammation-related. In this study, the effects of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) on the expression of C-C chemokine ligand 2 (CCL2) in fibroblasts derived from nasal polyps (NPFs) were investigated. The roles of cyclooxygenase (COX) 2 and prostaglandins in the mediation ...

Apoptosis of lung structural cells is crucial in the process of normal tissue repair. Insufficient apoptosis of lung fibroblasts may contribute to the development of fibrosis. Since the CC chemokine ligand 2 (CCL2) is associated with fibrotic disease and the cytokine IL-6 blocks apoptosis in many cell types, we hypothesized that CCL2 may contribute to the development of lung fibrosis by inducin...

The CCL2 chemokine mediates monocyte egress from bone marrow and recruitment into inflamed tissues through interaction with the CCR2 chemokine receptor, and its expression is upregulated by proinflammatory cytokines. Analysis of the gene expression profile in GM-CSF- and M-CSF-polarized macrophages revealed that a high CCL2 expression characterizes macrophages generated under the influence of M...

The C-C chemokine ligand 2 (CCL2) stimulates migration, proliferation, and invasion of prostate cancer (PCa) cells, and its signaling also plays a role in the activation of osteoclasts. Therefore targeting CCL2 signaling in regulation of tumor progression in bone metastases is an area of intense research. The objective of our study was to investigate the efficacy of CCL2 blockade by neutralizin...

Several cytokines and chemokines including chemokine (C-C motif) ligand-2 (CCL2) are induced in HIV-1 infection. However, the impact of HIV-1 viremia on CCL2 regulation is largely unknown. We utilized a DNA oligonucleotide microarray covering 110 inflammatory genes. Five genes were induced by at least 2-fold in PBMCs of HIV-1 viremic (>100,000 RNA copies ml(-1)) as compared with aviremic (<50 R...