Basal and IL-1β-mediated expression of MCP-1/CCL2, a cytokine that is involved in early “inflammatory” pathogenesis of diabetic and non-diabetic kidney disease as well as cellular response to LPS (Kitagawa et al. 2004), was inhibited by Empa at the mRNA and protein level in both HPTC lines (Pirklbauer et al. 2020). Here, CCL2 is linked to diabetic kidney disease.