We show that during the infection process, two dynamic players are interacting: (1) the bacterium, which aims to infect and replicate inside the EC (manipulating the host cell using bacterial effectors), and (2) the host ECs that readily interact with the pathogen (using cytokine and toll-like receptors) and fight back (using expression of adhesion molecules, chemokines and differential expression of MHC molecules) to induce an immune response. The gene discussed is HLA-C; the disease is infection.