CASP3 and atherosclerosis: PDCD4 was also demonstrated to play an important role in cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension, atherosclerosis, myocardial infarction, and ischemia-reperfusion injury.PDCD4 knockout in mice potently blocks pulmonary caspase-3 activation and the development of chronic hypoxia plus SU 5416 PH, which reduces endothelial injury in pulmonary hypertension[42], which is consistent with the findings that silencing ofPDCD4 suppresses the apoptosis of human pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells[43].