VCAN and atherosclerosis: Expression of versican is essential for normal development of heart and blood vessels [45,46].Versican is involved in various aspects of vascular lesion development and is present in atherosclerotic plaques, restenotic lesions, lesions arising during graft repair and aneurysmal lesions [27].Versican levels increase dramatically in atherosclerosis [27,47], suggesting that its accumulation may in part be responsible for increased LDL deposition/internalization in the vessel wall (figure 1a).