Additionally, since hypoxia is implicated during bacterial infections (Schaffer and Taylor, 2015; Zeitouni et al., 2016; Devraj et al., 2017), genes known to play a key role during hypoxia, or are known to have their expression influenced in a hypoxic environment (hypoxia-inducible factor 1 alpha (HIF1α), vascular endothelial growth factor a (VEGFA), MAX interactor 1 (MXI1), dual specificity phosphatase 2 (DUSP2)), were chosen for validation. Here, VEGFA is linked to bacterial infectious disease.