CCL2 and inflammatory response: Our primary objective was to compare levels of individual inflammatory protein mediators previously associated with intra-abdominal inflammation (CRP [7–11, 15–21], PCT [19–25], interleukin-6 (IL-6) [6–11], IL-8 [6, 7, 17, 26], IL-10 [6, 11, 12], and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) [6, 13], SAA [13, 14, 27–29]) in a cohort of children with suspected appendicitis.