HMOX1 and metastatic malignant neoplasm in the lymph nodes: Neither depth of wall invasion nor TNM stages significantly influence HO-1 protein expression.Consistent with these findings, the mean optical density of HO-1 expression in CRC tissues was significantly higher than that in normal tissue (Figure 3a), similar results were found for well differentiated tumors compared to moderate/low differentiated tumors (Figure 3b); whereas no significant difference was found between tumors of stage I, II and stage III, IV, as well as between tumors with and without lymph node metastasis (Figure 3c, d).