HK2 and atherosclerosis: Furthermore, excessive levels of glycolytic markers, including PFKFB3, HK2, and other key glycolytic proteins, as well as overproduction of lactate, have been reported in vascular endothelial cells inflicted by atherosclerosis, diabetes mellitus, and other vascular lesion-related diseases (Yang et al., 2018; Li et al., 2019b; Cao et al., 2019).