HMOX1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus: It is also noteworthy that the current study found an elevation in plasma HO-1 concentration whereas our previous case-control study in which intracellular HO-1 protein expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells was detected by flow cytometry in 606 healthy controls, 65 patients with impaired glucose regulation, and 217 patients with New-T2DM showed decreased HO-1 expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells in New-T2DM [17].