Kawasaki disease, a systemic vasculitis in childhood causing coronary artery aneurysmata, appears to be related to MBL deficiency according to genetic family studies by Biezeveld et al. (116) . Rugonfalvi-Kiss et al. (117) found significantly lower restenosis rates in females with low MBL levels undergoing thromboendarteryectomy of the carotid artery because of atherosclerotical stenosis. Additionally, patients with MBL deficiency had a greater risk of myocardial infarction than individuals with normal MBL serum levels (118, 119) . The proposed protective effect of complement in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis was experimentally underlined by C3 -/mice exhibiting accelerated development of atherosclerosis (120) . Clinical analysis of C2-deficient humans revealed a significant increase in cardiovascular diseases (121) . In particular, classical pathway involvement was demonstrated by Bhatia et al. (122) when C1q protected against the development of atherosclerosis in combined C1q and LDLr (low-density-lipoprotein receptor) knockout mice.