Chemokines and B cells in renal inflammation and allograft rejection

Recently the presence of intrarenal B cells in various inflammatory kidney diseases has been described and was in some cases linked to an unfavourable clinical course. Mechanisms leading to B cell influx into the kidney have therefore gained interest. Available data from the literature will be reviewed here with special focus on the contribution of chemokines. By far the most data from animal studies and human biopsies exist for BCA-1/CXCL13 pointing to a central role for this chemokine in B cell trafficking via interaction with its corresponding receptor CXCR5 on the B cell surface. Future studies will help to improve the knowledge on functional importance of B cell attracting chemokines as well as clinical significance of intrarenal B cell infiltrates.