Patients with arterial hypertension and cerebral small vessel disease showed increased levels of both soluble selectins (CD62P and CD62E) and integrins (ICAM-1 and VCAM-1; Sanada et al., 2005; Shalia et al., 2009; Rouhl et al., 2012) which can be considered as surrogates for their endothelial expression (Zonneveld et al., 2014). This evidence concerns the gene VCAM1 and cerebral small vessel disease.