CD14 and cardiovascular disorder: Since changes in human blood monocyte subsets were reported in the context of various cardiovascular diseases and are well-known players of cardiac remodeling [37, 38], we monitored the frequencies of the three monocyte subsets based on CD14 and CD16 expression, defining classical monocytes (CD14+, CD16– cMo), intermediate monocytes (CD14+, CD16int intMo) and nonclassical monocytes (CD14low, CD16high ncMo) (Fig. 1b).