A CETP ortholog is frustratingly absent in commonly used rodent models (Haa and Barter, 1982), rendering the study of atherosclerosis difficult: rodents are inherently resistant to atherosclerosis (Yin et al., 2012), and background manipulations such as targeted deletion of the Apoe or Ldlr genes are required to drive atherosclerosis. This evidence concerns the gene LDLR and atherosclerosis.