APOA1 and atherosclerosis: Therefore, in the current study we used AAV8-based vectors to express wtApoA-I and ApoA-IM in LDLreceptor deficient mice to test whether AAV-based overexpression of ApoA-I would reduce progression of atherosclerosis in this model and whether wtApoA-I and ApoA-IM differed in their effects on atherosclerosis.