CCL2 and atherosclerosis: The studies conducted by Bekkering et al. (2016) showed that circulating monocytes isolated from patients with symptomatic atherosclerosis, contrary to monocytes of asymptomatic subjects, possessed a pro-inflammatory phenotype characterized by an increased production of interleukin (IL)-6, IL-1β, IL-8, TNF-α (tumor necrosis factor), MCP-1 (monocyte chemoattractant protein-1) after stimulation with LPS (lipopolysaccharide) or Pam3Cys - ligands of Toll-like receptor (TLR)4 and TLR2, respectively [11].