HMOX1 and infection: More importantly, the pretreatment of NAC significantly inhibited the release of BCG into the culture medium from lytic death of cells caused by necroptosis/ferroptosis during the infection (Figure 7A), while Hmox1 knockdown induced the BCG release (Figure 7B), compared to BCG-infected untreated cells as determined by the CFU assay (Figures 7A, B).