SST and atherosclerosis: DOTATATE has also been shown to be a marker of specific macrophage activity in studies using both histological and cell-specific assays, where it also outperformed [18F]FDG as a marker of coronary inflammation.[12] Although, some early ex vivo studies did find low expression of the SST2 receptor on endothelial cells.[31,32] SST signaling in vascular tissue cells has been shown to serve an anti-inflammatory function, but the importance of this in relation to atherosclerosis and SST imaging has not yet been established.[33]