CD40LG and atherosclerosis: In the early 1990s, Palinski et al16 made the surprising observation that immunization with oxLDL was atheroprotective, which was soon confirmed by Nilsson et al. They cloned monoclonal autoantibodies to oxidation-specific epitopes (OSEs) and showed that anti-OSE IgM autoantibodies shared identity with other natural antibodies.17 This sparked intensive research into the atheroprotective role of anti-OSE antibodies supported by the finding that total B-cell deficiency accelerates atherosclerosis and supplementation of splenectomized mice with splenic B cells reduces disease development.