APOE and atherosclerosis: In this study, we crossed the ApoE knockout (ApoE-KO; ApoE−/−) atherosclerotic mouse model with the NOS3 knockout (NOS3-KO; NOS3−/−) hypertensive mouse model to establish an ApoE/NOS3 double knockout (ApoE/NOS3-KO; ApoE/NOS3−/−) hypertensive atherosclerosis mouse model.