APOL1 and atherosclerosis: To investigate whether APOL1 plays an independent pathogenic role in CVD, we studied a new mouse model: we cross-bred apolipoprotein-E (ApoE) knock-out mice, a well-established atherosclerosis model, with BAC/APOL1 mice, carrying human genomic constructs from bacterial artificial chromosomes (BAC) including APOL1-G0 or G1 alleles.