ATF6 and atherosclerosis: Although the mechanisms that act to this effect are not fully elucidated, urban et al. [44] showed that the SIM pretreatment exerted a neuroprotective effect by attenuating the ER stress response, with concomitant increases in ATF6 and XBP-1 protein expression during acute ischemia and reperfusion in rats and a novel protective effect of statins against atherosclerosis was proposed based on the finding that steraric acid induced ER stress in macrophages [35, 43, 45].