In the current study, the effect of picomolar levels of CCL2 on the autoimmune inflammatory response associated with a multiple sclerosis-like disease in mice was analyzed.
During inflammation, meprin functions to regulate chemokine activity of monocyte chemotactic protein 1, which is associated with chronic inflammatory diseases, including atherosclerosis, renal inflammatory diseases, and multiple sclerosis (MS).
The course of MS is associated with the secretion of many inflammatory and oxidative stress mediators, including cytokines (IL-1b, IL-6, IL-17, TNF-α, INF-γ) and chemokines (MIP-1a, MCP-1, IP10).
Our findings suggest the potential role of adipokines in pathogenesis and clinical progression of MS. Adiponectin and MCP-1 might potentially serve as prognostic biomarkers in MS.
However, we propose CCL2 as a molecular player contributing to the immunomodulatory activity of 1,25(OH)2D3 on DC, and hypothesize a role for this chemokine in the response of MS patients to vitamin D therapy.
Increased central nervous system (CNS) levels of monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 [CC chemokine ligand 2 (CCL2) in the systematic nomenclature] have been reported in chronic neurological diseases such as human immunodeficiency virus type 1-associated dementia, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and multiple sclerosis.
C-C chemokine receptor 2 (CCR2) is a receptor for chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) and associated with infiltrating lymphocytes in chronic active multiple sclerosis (MS) lesions.
In this report we describe pertussis toxin-induced reversible encephalopathy dependent on monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) overexpression (PREMO), a novel animal model that exhibits features of human encephalopathic complications of inflammatory disorders such as viral meningoencephalitis and Lyme neuroborreliosis as well as the mild toxic encephalopathy that commonly precedes relapses of multiple sclerosis (MS).
This shows that elevated numbers of MCP-1 and RANTES mRNA expressing CSF MNC are not specific for the inflammatory process in MS. We conclude that there is no evidence for a systemic dysregulation of the CC chemokines MCP-1 and RANTES in MS.
MCP-1 was expressed by astrocytes and macrophages within acute MS lesions, but was restricted to reactive astrocytes in the parenchyma surrounding the lesion.
In acute and chronic-active MS lesions immunoreactivity for MCP-1, -2 and -3 was prominent throughout the lesion center with reactivity diminishing abruptly at the lesion edge.