Adjusting for age, partial correlations between chemerin expression in periaortic fat (ρ=0.672, p < 0.001), aortic VSMCs (ρ=0.527, p=0.002) and foam cells (ρ=0.610, p < 0.001) and aortic atherosclerosis were still present. This evidence concerns the gene RARRES2 and aortic atherosclerosis.