CLOCK and atherosclerosis: A PubMed search was performed starting from the inception of the database until the present, using the following terms either separately or in combination: ‘melatonin’, ‘carotid arterial stenosis’, ‘vascular’, ‘atherosclerosis’, ‘atherosclerotic plaque’, ‘ischemic stroke’, ‘ischemia/reperfusion injury’, ‘carotid endarterectomy’, ‘smoking’, ‘melatonin’, ‘cigarette’, ‘nicotine’, ‘hypertension’, ‘blood pressure’, ‘hyperlipidemia’, ‘lipoprotein’, ‘oxLDL’, ‘hyperglycemia’, ‘blood glucose’, ‘insulin resistance’, ‘aging’, ‘circadian rhythm’, ‘CLOCK gene’, ‘inflammation’, ‘oxidation’, and ‘stress’.