SOD2 and atherosclerosis: SOD2 was used for the gene therapy in the animal model of CVD, and the results showed that SOD2 gene transfer reverses vascular dysfunction only in the absence of atherosclerosis plaque [21,24], this may indicate that the endothelial cells play a dominant role in vasculoprotective action as long as the endothelial cells irreversibly lose the function, the SOD2 therapy will not work, this is consistent with the recent findings [4].