Atherosclerosis, hypercholesterolemia, inflammation and endothelial dysfunction Atherosclerosis covers a central rule in cardiovascular diseases. This process can be promoting by several risk factors, all related with endothelial dysfunction, as hypercholesterolemia, diabetes, cigarette smoking and arterial hypertension that acting as negative stimuli lead to a prothrombotic pathway by proinflammatory-induced cytokines and chemokine's production. Furthermore endothelial cells exposed to hypercholesterolemia are inhibited by the downregulation of extracellular nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) in the release of endothelium-derived relaxing factor, thus the benefits of lowering cholesterol are not only related to its primary implication in the atherosclerosis process, but also by the improvement of the endothelial function.