The chemokine eotaxin-2 is a potent chemoattractant for inflammatory cells, the predominants of which are eosinophils.Human and murine atherosclerotic plaques are known to exhibit inflammatory phenotypes where a complex interaction of cytokine and chemokines plays a role.We tested the hypothesis that eotaxin-2 (eo-2) plays a causative role in the initiation and progression of exptl. atherosclerosis.Methods and Results: Sera collected from atherosclerotic ApoE knockout (KO) mice, exhibited significantly higher levels of eo-2 compared to sera collected from their background age matched C57BL/6 litters by ELISA.Moreover, levels of eo-2 were higher in old atherosclerotic ApoE KO mice than in young animals.Similarly, the expression level of the eo-2 receptor, CCR3, was increased in splenocytes of old ApoE compared to the young littermates.Administration of polyclonal blocking antibodies to eotaxin-2 resulted in a significant reduction of early atherosclerotic plaques in ApoE KO mice whereas prolonged treatment of mice with advanced plaques led to atheroma stabilization.A monoclonal antibody (D8) prepared against eo-2 attenuated adhesion of lymphocytes to fibronectin and potently inhibited their migration towards VEGF.Monoclonal blocking antibodies to eo-2 also significantly reduced atherosclerotic plaques in ApoE KO mice.Conclusion: Eo-2 serum levels are elevated in sera of ApoE KO mice with exptl. atherosclerosis and its blockade is associated with reduced fatty streak accumulation and increased plaque stabilization.