During the malaria-free period (0 months to 3 months), the percentage of IgM+ FcRL5+ cells decreased or remained stable, both when calculated relative to all IgM+ B cells or MBC subsets (Additional file 1: Fig. S5) and in each MBC subset separately (median, − 3.3%; range, − 26–5%; Fig. 2D). This evidence concerns the gene CD40LG and malaria.