The mechanisms that lead to kidney injury in patients with atherosclerotic renal artery stenosis are unclear. In testing the hypothesis that inflammatory mediators are released from stenotic kidneys, Eirin et al. found that renal vein blood levels and renal net release of soluble E-selectin and VCAM-1 were higher in stenotic kidneys than in kidneys from patients with essential hypertension; levels of various inflammatory cytokines were also elevated in stenotic kidneys. The researchers also report that CD34+/KDR+ cells sequestered within stenotic kidneys might be involved in repair.