BECN1 and endothelial dysfunction: A growing body of evidence implicates the role of autophagy dysfunction in the development of insulin resistance, lipid metabolism, inflammation, and endothelial dysfunction, which are the key players in the development of atherosclerosis.[6,32,33] The absence of significant association between Beclin1 and glycated hemoglobin in the current study suggests that the association between autophagy and atherosclerosis is independent of hyperglycemia.