Chemokines or chemotactic cytokines represent an expanding family of structurally related
small molecular weight proteins, recognised as being responsible for leukocyte trafficking
and activation. Soon after the discovery of this class of cytokines, about a decade ago,
monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) was found to be highly expressed in human
atherosclerotic lesions and postulated to be central in monocyte recruitment into the arterial
wall and developing lesions. In this review, we will discuss our present knowledge about …