SPP1 and atherosclerosis: CD36 is a scavenger receptor involved in both cholesterol uptake by macrophages and inflammasome activation in atherosclerosis (Stewart et al., 2010; Kagan and Horng, 2013; Park, 2014), and OPN regulates macrophage chemotaxis (Lund et al., 2013), the production of MMPs by macrophages (Mi et al., 2007), and enhancement of phagocytosis via opsonization (Schack et al., 2009; Fig. 7A).