ABCA1 and atherosclerosis: Recent findings support the proposal by Attie et al. in 2007 that ABCA1 may indeed be at the center of the relationship between cholesterol, HDL and atherosclerosis [109] and go further to suggest that a single mechanism involving the same interaction between ApoA1 and ABCA1 may encompass two HDL functions previously considered as separate: (1) efflux of cholesterol from macrophages in atherosclerotic arteries (Figure 1a); and (2) uptake of xanthophylls at the basolateral surface of enterocytes (Figure 1b).