APOE and atherosclerosis: Furthermore, the results from in vivo lineage tracing experiments that employed Cdh5-CreERT2 and SCL-CreERT2 endothelial-specific Cre-lox systems crossed with an ApoE−/− or LDLR−/− mouse model of atherosclerosis support the direct correlation between EndMT and atherosclerosis (5, 7).