Both HO-1 and HO-2 potentially influence pulmonary adaptation to high O 2 levels. In one example, the adenoviral-mediated gene transfer of HO-1 into rat lungs protected against the development of lung apoptosis and inflammation during hyperoxia [114] . In vitro studies showed that the overexpression of HO-1 in lung epithelial cells or rat fetal lung cells caused growth arrest and conferred resistance against hyperoxia-induced cell death [15, 16] . An oxygen-tolerant variant of hamster fibroblasts that moderately overexpressed HO-1 in comparison with the parent line resisted oxygen toxicity in vitro. The treatment of this oxygen-tolerant strain with HO-1 antisense oligonucleotides reduced the resistance to hyperoxia. In contrast, additional, vector-mediated, HO-1 expression did not further increase oxygen tolerance in this model [115] .