Thus, future directions will be to take advantage of the mouse models we have developed in which versican has been deleted conditionally in the whole animal or specifically in myeloid cells and determine the impact of selectively removing versican in mouse models of cardiovascular and lung disease, autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis, and in some cancers, particularly breast cancer. The gene discussed is VCAN; the disease is breast carcinoma.