In spontaneously hypertensive or atherosclerosis-prone rat VSMC, Mfn-2 levels were diminished (Chen et al., 2004), while overexpression of Mfn2 reduced VSMC proliferation and sensitized to H2O2-induced apoptosis (Guo et al., 2007a,b). This evidence concerns the gene MFN2 and atherosclerosis.