High fat and high cholesterol are two common components in atherogenic diets to induce and facilitate atherosclerosis in experimental mice.57,58Apoe-/- mice are a widely used mouse model for atherosclerosis research because Apoe-deficiency leads to increased plasma levels of total cholesterol (mostly in the chylomicron remnant/VLDL fractions) and increases sensitivity to dietary lipids.59 In the present study, we demonstrated that the HFHC diet significantly promoted atherosclerosis in the aorta and pulmonary artery of Apoe−/− SPF mice (Figure 1). The gene discussed is APOE; the disease is atherosclerosis.