The cells were washed with PBS and slips were mounted onto glass slides using mount media anti fade mi ture and stored until fluores cence microscopy laser scanning was performed using a Zeiss A ioplan 2 Imaging System. Western Blot analysis of p38MAPK and p85 PI3K phosphorylation such information Cultures were serum starved overnight prior to the addi tion of L Cys or Hcy. Subsequently, cells were washed with PBS and harvested under non denaturing conditions by incuba tion with lysis buffer as described above. Western blot was performed as described above. The immuno blot membrane was incubated with anti pp85 or anti pp38 MAPK at 1 1000 dilution, followed by incubating with HRP conjugated anti rabbit secondary antibody at 1 2000 for 60 minutes at room temperature.

The membrane was reprobed with anti p85 or anti p38MAPK, followed by incubat ing with HRP conjugated anti rabbit secondary antibody. The bands of pp85PI 3 K and pp38MAPK were normal ized with p85 PI 3K and p38MAPK respectively for analy sis using BioRad Quantity One package. Mouse Leukocyte adhesion assay The assay was used to evaluate leukocyte MC adhesion in the presence of increasing doses of Hcy, and Hcy with kinase inhibitors and pAb MIP 2. MCs were initially plated at a density of 10,000 cells well in 24 well tissue culture plate. Following overnight serum starvation MCs were incubated in the presence of Hcy with or without inhibitors 10 M SB203580 and 10 M LY294002. Cell adhesion assay was performed as per manufacturers protocol. In brief, leukocytes were isolated from blood collected from anaesthetized mice and pre pared as described in the manufacturers protocol.

Subsequently, isolated leuko cytes were labelled with Calcein AM, MCs were washed with PBS, followed by addition of labelled leukocyte cell suspension in DMEM to each well. The co culture was incubated, and follow ing this period, non adherent cells leukocytes were removed by gently washing with PBS, followed by addi tion of 300 l PBS to each well. Fluorescence from leuko cytes bound to mesangial cells was determined by spectrophotometry. The percentage of bound leukocytes to un stimulated MC represented 100% and was compared to other conditions. For neutralization e periments, MC stimulated with 50 M Hcy overnight were washed with PBS. The cells were then incubated with 5 g ml pAb MIP 2 prepared in DMEM for 3 hours at 37 C, before incubating with labelled leukocytes.

Statistical Analyses In each series of e periment, differences between means were analyzed by Students Dacomitinib t test using Instat Statistical software. Differences were considered significant at p 0. 05. Results Homocysteine influences cytokine levels in mesangial cells Previous studies have suggested an association between Hcy and e pression of inflammatory cytokines.