BAX and atherosclerosis: It is reported that catalpol reduced inflammatory cytokine levels and improved cholinergic function in a mouse model of senescence (Zhang et al., 2013), and protected pre-myelinating oligodendrocytes against ischemia-induced injury in vitro (Cai et al., 2016) while alleviating atherosclerosis (Zhang Y. et al., 2018) and modulating Bcl-2/Bax ratio to suppress endothelial cells apoptosis induced by hydrogen peroxide (Hu et al., 2010).