ESAM and atherosclerosis: Russell Ross, one of the main exponents of this hypothesis, recently and elegantly summarized the evidence for the inflammatory nature of atherosclerosis, stating: "The lesions of atherosclerosis represent a series of highly specific cellular and molecular responses that can best be described, in aggregate, as an inflammatory disease".8 The initial steps of atherosclerosis involve expression of leukocyte and endothelial cell adhesion molecules.