Recent studies in various experimental models such as sepsis, cardiovascular pathologies, experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) and transplantation, and infection models such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis have highlighted the biological significance of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) enzymatic pathway and the reactive products of this pathway in regulating the inflammation and in the adaptation of the pathogens to the host microenvironment22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28. The gene discussed is HMOX1; the disease is experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis.