NPC1 and aortic atherosclerosis: NPC1 disease alleles are also associated with neurological problems in murine models due to Purkinje cell degeneration (Sarna et al., 2003) and NPC1 knockout mice showed a formation of aortic atherosclerosis when fed a high lipid diet, indicating that functional NPC1 likely provides protective effects against atherosclerosis (Zhang et al., 2008).