In order to investigate the role of renal chemerin and its potential use as a diagnostic marker of kidney disease, our current study characterized its systemic and local expression in established animal models of hypertensive nephropathy and glomerulonephritis using 2-kidney-1-clip (2k1c) hypertensive and Thy1.1 nephritic rats, respectively. This evidence concerns the gene RARRES2 and hypertensive nephropathy.