CTSB and atherosclerosis: These results suggested that there is a certain dynamic balance between cysteine protease and cysteine statin C in human tissues. Cysteine proteases increase with the aggravation of the activity of atherosclerosis, which induces an increase in cystatin C. The pathological process of atherosclerosis breaks this balance and increases the level of cystatin C, so from this point of view, the level of cystatin C can be used as a biomarker for the progression of atherosclerosis.