CX3CR1 and atherosclerosis: Regarding these chemokine receptors and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), it was shown that they are crucial to promoting monocytes recruitment into the atherosclerotic plates since the disruption of the interaction between CCR2 and its ligand CCL2 (MCP-1, monocyte chemoattractant protein 1) or between CX3CR1 and its ligand CX3CL1 (fractalkine) was able to minimize the atherosclerosis progression by reducing the number of circulating monocytes (Tacke et al., 2007; Combadière et al., 2008; Saederup et al., 2008).