Atherosclerosis occurs when deposits, called plaque, collect on the inside walls of arteries.
A blood clot can develop on the plaque, blocking the blood vessel and triggering a heart attack or stroke. However, those drugs raise HDL cholesterol levels only slightly, if at all. The mice used in the study were fed a diet high in cholesterol and saturated fat to induce atherosclerosis. By comparison, the control animals' atherosclerosis progressed during the four weeks. Previous studies in animals have shown that apoA-1 can slow progression of atherosclerosis.