Background

Glomerular monocytes are found in a variety of renal diseases and appear to be important in the pathogenesis of glomerular injury. The mediators responsible for recruiting monocytes to the glomerulus are not well characterized. We have recently established that cultured human mesangial cells produce the specific monocyte chemoattractant, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) in response to inflammatory cytokines commonly found in glomeruli during glomerulonephritis (GN). This suggested that MCP-1 may be involved in recruiting leukocytes to the glomerulus. To date however, there is little information regarding the expression of MCP-1 during renal disease. The present study was undertaken to investigate the in vivo expression of MCP-1 during experimental and human GN.