APOE and atherosclerosis: Since current treatment of COPD patients with CVD is suboptimal, the aim of this study was to investigate the immunomodulatory properties of MSC on pulmonary and systemic inflammation, emphysema and atherosclerosis in an acute and chronic murine model of LPS-induced pulmonary inflammation using hyperlipidemic APOE*3-Leiden (E3L) mice, which develop diet-induced atherosclerosis [27, 28].