APOE and atherosclerosis: In previous studies IPH and intraplaque microvessels were only detected in the carotid or brachiocephalic artery of aged (> 40 weeks) atherosclerosis-prone mice (38), upon prolonged WTD feeding of Apoe–/– mice (> 40 weeks) (39), after surgical (40), pharmacological [focal mast cell activation (41)] intervention or with haploinsufficiency of a key extracellular matrix component (fibulin-1) (42).