NFKB1 and atherosclerosis: Although knocking out components of the NF-κB pathway generally protects mice from the development of atherosclerosis (Bourdillon et al., 2000; Cybulsky et al., 2001; Bråneìn et al., 2004), one study showed that macrophage-specific deletion of IκB kinase 2 (IKK2) leads to increased atherosclerotic lesion formation and an impaired inflammatory response (Kanters et al., 2003).