Our experiments show that miR-29b elicits a response to the migratory potential of lipid-loaded AdvSCA-1+, possibly via Sirt1 and MMP-9, with the latter documented to play a role in atherosclerosis (Chen et al., 2008, Gough et al., 2006, Pleva et al., 2015), while the former is a molecule now shown to be involved in AdvSCA-1+ progenitors. Here, MMP9 is linked to atherosclerosis.