ACE2 and atherosclerosis: Unlike ACE, ACE2 stimulates the degradation of Ang II into Ang-(1-7), an anti-inflammatory vasodilator and anti-trophic heptapeptide (Donoghue et al., 2000; Oudit et al., 2003; Danilczyk and Penninger, 2006), therefore exerting protective effect in atherosclerosis.