This is a proposal from the administration and certain faculty members of the Bowman Gray School of Medicine of Wake Forest University for the continuation of a Specialized Center of Research (SCOR) in Arteriosclerosis. We have described the necessary facilities, organizational mechanisms, investigative expertise, and planned research to advance understanding of the causes and prevention of atherosclerosis. The proposal describes a broadly based interdisciplinary attack on numerous aspects of the disease process. Particular emphasis will be on genetic and biochemical mechanisms in determining hypo or hyperresponsiveness of nonhuman primates to dietary cholesterol, mechanisms of the protection of females against coronary atherosclerosis, comparative studies of pleomorphic features of fatty streaks, studies on endothelial permeability, mechanisms of atherosclerosis exacerbation by diabetes mellitus, the importance of genetically distinct collagen types in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis, lesion regression and vascular function of atherosclerotic rhesus monkeys, the structure and function of lipoproteins as affected by diet and heredity, studies on arterial metabolism, and finally, metabolic studies to evaluate the biochemical sites of genetic influence on plasma cholesterol homeostasis.