HMOX1 and diabetes mellitus: Moreover, we performed qRT-PCR and western blotting to assess the changes in the Nrf2-related pathway and found that Nrf2, MDA, and HO-1 mRNA and protein expression levels were downregulated in both patients with DM and H9c2 cells maintained in high glucose (Figure 1C-P, p<0.05, p<0.01, p<0.001).