CCL2 and atherosclerosis: In terms of CVDs, it has been reported that, both in mice and humans, elevations in CCR2 expression are closely associated with atherosclerosis progression and CVDs since it was observed that monocytes CCR2-are not able to migrate through the endothelium, in response to CCL2 (MCP-1), due to its less capacity of adhering to these vascular cells (Han et al., 1999), which consequently led to reducing the number of monocytes, particularly classical monocytes, into the atherosclerotic plaque (França et al., 2017).