Saliba-Gustafsson P, Pedrelli M, Gertow K, et al. - In this investigation, researchers described supposed beneficial impacts of the Pro251 variant of perlipin-2 on subclinical atherosclerosis and the mechanism it uses. A pan-European cohort of high-risk people where carotid intima-media thickness was evaluated was adopted. At baseline and over 30 months of follow-up, the Pro251 variant of perilipin-2 is linked to reduced intima-media thickness. The authors demonstrate for the first time that perilipin-2 impacts vulnerability to human atherosclerosis through autophagy activation and cholesterol efflux stimulation. They show that perilipin-2 modulates LXR ligand 27OH-cholesterol levels and initiates a feed-forward loop where LXR and autophagy activate each other reciprocally; the mechanism by which perilipin-2 exerts its beneficial effects on subclinical atherosclerosis.