AGT and abdominal aortic aneurysm: Thatcher et al. (2014) have found that DIZE decreases formation and severity of Ang-II-induced abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA). Ang-II-induced AAA is characterized by progressive leukocyte accumulation, extracellular matrix degradation, luminal expansion, and thrombus (Saraff et al., 2003), being closely related to atherosclerosis. In addition, Fraga-Silva et al. (2015) have demonstrated that DIZE enhances the stability of atherosclerotic plaques in ApoE-KO mice and reduces the expression of ICAM-1 and VCAM-1.