Furthermore, when apo E-deficient mice (a model of accelerated atherosclerosis) are crossed with adiponectin transgenic mice the progression of atherosclerosis is inhibited, despite unaltered glucose and lipid metabolism, which suggests that adiponectin has a direct antiatherogenic action (Yamauchi et al., 2003; von Eynatten et al., 2006). Here, ADIPOQ is linked to atherosclerosis.