DDIT3 and psychosocial stress measurement: Since about 60 %–70 % of macrophage-derived foam cell formation is caused by CD36-mediated ox-LDL uptake, which is an important factor to lead to ER stress [20, 21], and EEP suppressed ox-LDL-induced lipid cumulation in RAW264.7 cells (Fig. 1), we next detected whether the mechanism underlying the regulatory effect of EEP on ER stress-CHOP pathway could be through inhibition of CD36 expression.