APOE and atherosclerosis: Animal studies also confirmed that DEHP exposure can lead to hyperlipidemia and atherosclerosis development in ApoE-/- mice, which featured increased levels of inflammatory cytokines (e.g., Tnf-α, Mcp-1) in aorta, and elevated expression of key atherogenic genes (e.g., Icam-1, Vcam-1) in ECs [92].