Systemic lack of HO-1 has been reported to promote atherosclerosis in ApoE null mice (Yet et al., 2003) as well as aortitis in chow-fed old C57BL/6 mice (Ishikawa et al., 2012), while its overexpression by adenoviral means results in decreased atherosclerotic lesions (Juan et al., 2001). Here, HMOX1 is linked to atherosclerosis.