As plaque tissue is difficult to immunostain owing to high levels of non-specific background signal, we propose that the best way to determine RIPK3 protein expression patterns accurately in the context of atherosclerosis would be to use a RIPK3-tagged reporter mouse, such as the RIPK3-GFP mouse developed by Moriwaki et al. (2017). The gene discussed is RIPK3; the disease is atherosclerosis.