Kwon and colleagues found a decreased expression of Nrf2 and HO-1 in their esophagitis murine model compared with control rats; however, Magierowska and collages found that Nrf2 and HO-1 were upregulated in theirs, suggesting a self-defensive, but overwhelmed, mechanism to counteract the damaging effects [85,86]. Here, HMOX1 is linked to esophagitis.