CXCL12 and atherosclerosis: As one of the most important receptors for stromal cell-derived factor 1, CXCR4 has been known to play a central role in angiogenesis, endothelial function, and atherosclerosis (Petit et al., 2007; Zernecke et al., 2008; Chen et al., 2010; Noels et al., 2014; Ziegler et al., 2016; Doring et al., 2017).