WWC3 and atherosclerosis: In a multivariate model including the four expression traits and smoking, as well as age and gender, PTGDS (P = 5.7×10−4) and SASH1 (P = 0.012) remained significantly associated with the number of plaques whereas MMP25 (P = 0.09), WWC3 (P = 0.10) and smoking (P = 0.5) were no longer significant, suggesting that the association between smoking and atherosclerosis was mostly reflected (or mediated) by its effect on the expression of these four genes.