APOE and atherosclerosis: To study the role of AMPK–Pdlim5 pathway in the development of atherosclerosis, ApoE−/− animals were divided randomly into streptozocin-induced diabetes mellitus together with or without metformin, Pdlim5 phosphomimetic mutant that carried adenovirus (Pdlim5 S177D) or Pdlim5 unphosphorylatable mutant that carried adenovirus (Pdlim5 S177A).