Monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1), vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) and CXC ligand 16 (CXCL16) have been documented to be increased within the kidneys, sera and urine of SLE patients and seem to correlate with disease activity, although their clinical utility in predicting disease activity in LN remains to be fully established [6,7,9,12-15]. The gene discussed is CCL2; the disease is systemic lupus erythematosus.