The different composition of the bile acid species affects the hydrophobicity and related solubilisation efficacy of the bile, which in turn may impact intestinal cholesterol absorption and excretion [18–20] Indeed, we observed that the bile from the L-Ncor1Hep−/− mice was less hydrophobic compared to the bile from L-Ncor1Hep+/+ mice as determined by the Heuman index (Fig. 3G), confirming previous observations with an independent Ncor1-deficient mouse model on a non-atherosclerosis prone genetic background [15]. This evidence concerns the gene NCOR1 and atherosclerosis.