CCL2 and Hypertension: Myocardial stress, such as pressure overload or salt-induced hypertension, drives upregulation of CCR2 ligands, such as monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1 or CCL2) [9,16], MCP-3 (or CCL7) [16], CCL12 [16], and SDF-1alpha [9], which play an essential role in CCR2+ monocyte influx into the heart [9,16].