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Cardiovascular disease (CVD) encompasses all disorders associated with the heart and vascular system. It includes many serious disorders such as stroke, heart failure and myocardial infarction and as such is the leading cause of death globally1. Furthermore, CVD also has a considerable financial burden in the Western society with for example a projected medical cost of 1.1 trillion dollar in the United States in 20351. The vast majority of CVD deaths can be attributed to coronary artery disease and stroke of which atherosclerosis is the main underlying cause. Atherosclerosis is a multifactorial disease with a long list of known risk factors. While some of these risk factors are fixed (ie gender, genetics, age), other risk factors, including smoking, excessive alcohol use, an unhealthy diet and physical inactivity are largely lifestyle-dependent. Greater understanding and improved management of these risk factors has resulted in a strong decline in CVD mortality since the 1970s. Nonetheless, the decline is stagnating in the last few years and it has been shown that risk factor control does not eliminate CVD1, 2. In fact, the most successful treatments so far have been plasma lipid lowering, which leads to a 30% reduction in relative risk of cardiovascular disease. In addition, it has been estimated that by 2035 approximately 45% of all United States adults will have some form of CVD due to the rapid increase in the number of old and obese people1. These data clearly indicate that there is an urgent need for novel strategies to improve the prevention and treatment of atherosclerosis.