NOS3 and atherosclerosis: The upregulation of Lox-1 and the downregulation of Nos2 and Nos3 mRNA levels confirmed atherosclerotic changes in APOB-100 transgenic mice reported earlier (Chen et al., 2002; Csont et al., 2007) The reduction in Nos3 gene expression is in line with observations focusing on atherosclerosis-prone regions of the mouse aorta (Won et al., 2007) and on areas of human atherosclerosis (Buttery et al., 1996; Barry et al., 1998).