Moreover, our findings are unlikely to be specific for infections with S. Typhimurium but are also relevant to other iron-dependent intracellular pathogens such as Chlamydia, Legionella and Listeria (Paradkar et al., 2008; Bellmann-Weiler et al., 2010, 2013; Haschka et al., 2015), as well as Mycobacterium and Leishmania. Accordingly, we note that Hfe deficiency impairs the growth of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in human macrophages (Olakanmi et al., 2007). Here, HFE is linked to infection.