A protective role for cilia in these regions [36,37] is supported by the recent report that removal of endothelial cilia using conditional deletion of Ift88 increased atherosclerosis and inflammatory gene expression, and decreased eNOS activity in Apoe−/− mice fed a high-fat diet [59], and that the endothelium becomes sensitized in athero-prone regions to undergo osteogenic differentiation in Tg737 (orpk/orpk) cilium-defective mice [60]. Here, NOS3 is linked to atherosclerosis.