CCL2 and diabetes mellitus: Our findings are in accordance with these observations in that: a) the increased oxidative stress, the first negative impact of hyperglycemia, leads to a marked apoptotic cell death [11], in the absence of inflammatory infiltrate, and potentially triggers the increase in MCP-1 expression; 2) infiltrating inflammatory cells and cardiomyocyte necrosis resulting in extracellular release of HMGB-1 occurred in the LV only at the late time point of diabetes (D8).