Necroptosis might have evolved as a host defense mechanism against intracellular pathogens encoding caspase 8 (casp8) inhibitors (3, 4) but is of high pathophysiological relevance in several medical conditions such as cardiovascular diseases (atherosclerosis (5), myocardial infarction and stroke (6–8), ischemia-reperfusion injury (9)), pancreatitis (10), inflammatory bowel disease and necrotizing enterocolitis (4, 11–13). The gene discussed is CASP8; the disease is atherosclerosis.