This notion was further corroborated in adoptive transfer experiments in lymphocyte-deficient ApoE−/−Rag-2−/− mice in which CD8+ T cells deficient in the cytotoxic molecules perforin and granzyme B, as well as in the cytokine TNF-α but not IFN-γ, failed to increase atherosclerosis as induced by the adoptive transfer of wildtype CD8+ T cells. This evidence concerns the gene CD8A and atherosclerosis.