TNFRSF11A and Autoimmunity: Consistent with the latter possibility, a transplantation of RANK-KO fetal thymic stroma (Rossi et al., 2007) or an adoptive transfer of splenocytes from RANKL-KO or RANKL/CD40 DKO mice (Akiyama et al., 2008) provoked autoimmunity in the recipient nude mice.