AGER and atherosclerosis: Analysis of the KEGG signal pathways revealed that DEGs were mainly enriched in pathways associated with immune- and inflammatory-related diseases (e.g., advanced glycation end product-receptor for advanced glycation end product (AGE-RAGE) signalling pathway in diabetic complications, pertussis, fluid shear stress, atherosclerosis and inflammatory bowel disease) and immune-related pathways (e.g., peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPAR) signalling pathway, type 17 T helper cells (Th17) cell differentiation and leukocyte transendothelial migration) (Figure 5).