Over time, management of SLE patients has improved and life expectancy of these patients has increased to reach a 10-year survival rate about 70%. However, several studies have revealed that atherosclerosis-attributed vascular events are significantly more frequent in these surviving lupus patients, compared to age-related individuals without SLE. Atherosclerosis is characterized by a chronic inflammatory state where immune cell activity is linked to plaque formation and remodeling. A plaque is formed within the lumen of mediumand large-sized arteries due to physiological imbalances caused by chronic inflammation; the plaque is described as a progressive accumulation of lipid, inflammatory cells, smooth muscle cells, and connective tissue within the intima of arteries. It has become widely accepted that atherosclerosis is an inflammatory disease, and that the immune system plays a pivotal role in disease development. Therefore, it is reasonable to suggest that the chronic inflammatory condition encountered in SLE and the activation of immune cells may predispose patients to an increased risk of premature atherosclerosis leading to cardiovascular disease. For these reasons, immunomodulatory therapy might be of benefit in ameliorating atherosclerosis in patients with SLE. However, with the exception of hydroxychloroquine and some statins, the availability of beneficial treatments to decrease CVD risk in SLE is limited. Mycophenolate mofetil is an immunosuppressive drug used in the treatment of patients with SLE, particularly those with nephritis. It is also approved to prevent transplant rejection, especially in heart and kidney transplantation. MMF is an ester pro-drug which is metabolized in the body to the active compound mycophenolic acid. MPA is a noncompetitive inhibitor of a rate-limiting purine biosynthetic enzyme, inosine-59-monophosphate 
dehydrogenase. IMPDH is involved in de novo synthesis of purines, and lymphocytes rely exclusively on this de novo pathway for nucleotide synthesis. Therefore, MMF selectively targets lymphocyte proliferation. creating algorithm sought maximize differences minimizing variance Importantly, MMF has been shown to reduce immune-mediated vascular injury in transplantation-associated atherosclerosis and to attenuate plaque inflammation in patients with symptomatic carotid artery stenosis. These findings further suggest a potential role for MMF in the treatment of atherosclerosis. The purpose of this experiment was to investigate the effects of mycophenolate mofetil, on development of premature atherosclerosis in a murine mouse model of accelerated atherosclerosis and systemic lupus erythematosus. The gld.apoE2/2 model is ideal to use for this experiment based on previous findings of synergistic disease presentation of both SLE and atherosclerosis in mice. Our study investigated the effect of a physiologically relevant dose of MMF on disease development. The 200 mg/kg/ day concentration of MMF in mouse diet is roughly equivalent to the 2000 mg/day dose of MMF approved for use in human renal transplant prophylaxis and commonly used for the treatment of human SLE. Severity of cardiovascular disease was assessed by quantifying the atherosclerotic lesion area in the aortic root. To assess the hallmarks of SLE associated with the gld.apoE2/2 model, spleen and submandibular lymph node were weighed. As such, the data show that the dosage of 200 mg/kg/day yields a significant ameliorating effect on atherosclerosis, splenomegaly and lymphadenopathy presentation. These data suggest that MMF treatment of patients with SLE could not only be beneficial to lupus, but also decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease. With advances in medical care, the quality of life has improved and survival rate has increased for patients with SLE. However, with this increased survival rate, there is also a correlated increase in CVD.