BSG and atherosclerosis: Mounting evidence has suggested that elevated EMMPRIN and MMP-9 expression in atherosclerotic plaques (Schmidt et al., 2006) or in atherosclerosis-related cells (such as oxLDL-stimulated monocytes/macrophages and coronary smooth muscle cells) (Major et al., 2002) contributes to extracellular matrix degradation and promotes plaque rupture (Yoon et al., 2005; Joghetaei et al., 2013), which indicates that EMMPRIN and MMP-9 play important regulatory roles in the progression of atherosclerosis.