Abstract. Background/Aim: Ectopic myoglobin (MB)expressionMyoglobin (MB) is a cytoplasmatic monomeric oxygenbinding hemoprotein known to be localized mainly in cardiac myocytes and mitochondrial-rich skeletal muscles. In contrast to its relative haemoglobin, MB is only found in the blood stream after muscle injury. The functional paradigm of MB is the storage and intracellular transport of oxygen (O 2 ) (1, 2) to the mitochondria for oxidative phosphorylation within the myocyte. However, MB also maintains homeostasis of the nitric oxide free radical (NO•) in muscle through scavenging or producing NO• molecules (3, 4) and appropriating excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) (5). In addition, MB is able to bind fatty acids with physiological binding constants in vitro (6). On the other hand, MB-knockout mice are viable and exhibit normal exercise capacity but their survival depends on the activation of compensating mechanisms, i.e. increasing capillary densities and haematocrit (7,8).In the last years, the existence of non-muscle MB has been increasingly acknowledged, demonstrating MB, e.g., in the liver, brain or gills of carps (9) and in humans, 6235