As for the clinical implications, it is unclear that the deficiency of afadin is related to the adult-onset cardiovascular diseases, such as atherosclerosis and coronary heart diseases, because almost all of afadin cKO mice are embryonically lethal and thus it is difficult to conduct experiments using adult afadin cKO mice to elucidate the effects of afadin on such diseases. This evidence concerns the gene AFDN and atherosclerosis.