Mesangial expansion, the principal glomerular lesion in diabetic nephropathy, is preceded by a phenotypic activation and transient proliferation of the glomerular mesangial cells and by a prominent glomerular infiltration of monocytes and macrophages. Because this infiltration seems to play a key role in the subsequent mesangial matrix expansion, we tested the response of cultures of rat mesangial cells (RMCs) for monocyte adhesion in response to hyperglycemia. Increasing the medium glucose concentration from 5.6 mM (normal) to 25.6 mM (hyperglycemic) significantly increased hyaluronan in the cell matrix, with a concurrent 3-to 4-fold increase in adhesion of U937 monocytic leukemic cells to cultures of near confluent RMCs. These responses were attributed directly to the high glucose concentration and not to increased extracellular osmolality. The monocytes primarily bind directly to hyaluronan-based structures in vitro. Abnormal deposits of hyaluronan were found in glomeruli of kidney sections from diabetic rats 1 week after streptozotocin treatment, often with closely associated monocytes/macrophages, suggesting that similar structures are relevant in vivo. The monocyte adhesion response to high glucose concentration required growth stimulation of RMCs by serum and activation of protein kinase C, and was inhibited by prior passage of the RMCs in the presence of heparin. These results suggest that the response may be cell growth state and protein kinase C-dependent. When incubated with the viral mimetic, poly I:C, in the presence of normal glucose, heparin-passaged RMCs still increased cell-associated hyaluronan and exhibited hyaluronan-mediated adhesion of monocytes, indicating that the two stimuli, high glucose and viral mimetic, induce the production of the hyaluronan structures that promote monocyte adhesion by distinctly different intracellular signaling mechanisms.Mesangial expansion, the principal glomerular lesion in diabetic nephropathy, reduces the area for filtration and leads eventually to sclerosis and renal failure (1, 2). However, the expansion of the mesangial extracellular matrix (ECM) 1 and the sclerosis that characterize diabetic nephropathy are preceded by a phenotypic activation and transient proliferation of the glomerular mesangial cells. This is followed by a prominent glomerular infiltration of monocytes and macrophages (3-5) that seems to play a key role in the subsequent mesangial matrix expansion, hypercellularity, and onset of proteinuria (6, 7). Nevertheless, the molecular mechanisms underlying glomerular infiltration by monocytes and macrophages are still unclear.The interaction of monocytes with mesangial cells in culture has been studied previously using U937 cells, a monocytic leukemic cell line that is a widely accepted model for monocyte adhesion (7,8), and mesangial cell cultures incubated in media with high glucose concentrations bind more U937 cells (7). Generally, the interactions between monocytes and resident cells involve: (i) monocyte cell surface proteins, including C...