**Acknowledgements**

The authors acknowledge Rita Van den Bossche, Hermine Fret, and Anne-Elise Van Hoydonck for excellent technical support. This study was funded by the University of Antwerp (BOF) and the Flanders Fund for Scientific Research (FWO) (project G.0412.16N). Dorien G. De Munck is a fellow of the Agency for Innovation by Science and Technology (IWT).

## **Author details**

**Figure 3.** Atherosclerotic plaque composition of rabbits that were fed 0.3% cholesterol for 20 weeks (baseline), followed by cholesterol withdrawal for 4 weeks either via a normal diet or a restricted diet (20% of normal diet). (A) Sections of the proximal ascending aorta were TUNEL stained for the detection of apoptosis and the number of TUNEL positive cells in each group was quantified. Scale bar = 50 µm. \*P < 0.05 (One-way ANOVA with post-hoc LSD, n = 10 in each group). (B) Sections of the proximal ascending aorta were immunohistochemically stained for VCAM-1 expression on endothelial cells. The number of VCAM-1 positive endothelial cells in each group was quantified. Scale bar = 500 µm. \*\*P < 0.01 (One-way

ANOVA with post-hoc LSD, n = 8–10 in each group).

66 Atherosclerosis - Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

Dorien G. De Munck, Guido R.Y. De Meyer and Wim Martinet\* \*Address all correspondence to: wim.martinet@uantwerpen.be Laboratory of Physiopharmacology, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
