The relevance of the cell-specific contribution of CXCL12 and its receptor CXCR4 in the progression of atherosclerosis has been extensively proven (van der Vorst et al., 2015; Doring et al., 2017, 2019), thus further linking the miR-126 duplex to atherosclerosis development. This evidence concerns the gene CXCL12 and atherosclerosis.