Streptococcus suis serotype 2 is known to be a major pathogen of swine, causing mainly meningitis. It is also a zoonotic agent leading predominantly to meningitis in humans working in close contact with pigs. In this study, we investigated the ability of S. suis to up-regulate the expression of adhesion molecules involved in inflammation, using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. S. suis serotype 2 stimulated the up-regulation of the expression of intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1, CD54), CD11a/CD18 and CD11c/CD18 on human THP-1 monocytes, but did not change that of ICAM-1, vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1, CD106) and E-selectin (CD62E) on human endothelial cells. The up-regulation of adhesion molecules was time- and bacterial concentration-dependent, and cell wall components were largely responsible for such stimulation. To a lesser extent, purified haemolysin of S. suis also stimulated adhesion molecule expression. Stimulation of monocytes with strains of different origin showed that there was no clear tendency for human strains to induce a higher expression of adhesion molecules than strains from diseased pigs. Finally, monocytes stimulated with S. suis also showed an increase in adherence to endothelial cells. Hence, S. suis is capable of up-regulating important adhesion molecules involved in inflammation, which may result in an increased leucocyte recruitment into sites of infection, thus providing a possible mechanism for some of the inflammatory features of meningitis caused by this pathogen.