diff --git a/modules/angular2/src/render/xhr_impl.ts b/modules/angular2/src/render/xhr_impl.ts
index e414909fea..8b7756591a 100644
--- a/modules/angular2/src/render/xhr_impl.ts
+++ b/modules/angular2/src/render/xhr_impl.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import {Injectable} from 'angular2/di';
 import {Promise, PromiseWrapper, PromiseCompleter} from 'angular2/src/facade/async';
+import {isPresent} from 'angular2/src/facade/lang';
 import {XHR} from './xhr';
 
 @Injectable()
@@ -13,7 +14,7 @@ export class XHRImpl extends XHR {
     xhr.onload = function() {
       // responseText is the old-school way of retrieving response (supported by IE8 & 9)
       // response/responseType properties were introduced in XHR Level2 spec (supported by IE10)
-      var response = ('response' in xhr) ? xhr.response : xhr.responseText;
+      var response = isPresent(xhr.response) ? xhr.response : xhr.responseText;
 
       // normalize IE9 bug (http://bugs.jquery.com/ticket/1450)
       var status = xhr.status === 1223 ? 204 : xhr.status;
diff --git a/modules/angular2/test/http/backends/xhr_backend_spec.ts b/modules/angular2/test/http/backends/xhr_backend_spec.ts
index 848ecc2b8d..6107cb534d 100644
--- a/modules/angular2/test/http/backends/xhr_backend_spec.ts
+++ b/modules/angular2/test/http/backends/xhr_backend_spec.ts
@@ -51,6 +51,11 @@ class MockBrowserXHR extends BrowserXhr {
   }
 
   setStatusCode(status) { this.status = status; }
+
+  setResponse(value) { this.response = value; }
+
+  setResponseText(value) { this.responseText = value; }
+
   addEventListener(type: string, cb: Function) { this.callbacks.set(type, cb); }
 
   dispatchEvent(type: string) { this.callbacks.get(type)({}); }
@@ -143,7 +148,7 @@ export function main() {
            var connection = new XHRConnection(sampleRequest, new MockBrowserXHR(),
                                               new ResponseOptions({status: statusCode}));
 
-           ObservableWrapper.subscribe(connection.response, res => {
+           ObservableWrapper.subscribe<Response>(connection.response, res => {
              expect(res.status).toBe(statusCode);
              async.done();
            });
@@ -158,7 +163,7 @@ export function main() {
            var connection = new XHRConnection(sampleRequest, new MockBrowserXHR(),
                                               new ResponseOptions({status: statusCode}));
 
-           ObservableWrapper.subscribe(connection.response, res => {
+           ObservableWrapper.subscribe<Response>(connection.response, res => {
              expect(res.status).toBe(normalizedCode);
              async.done();
            });
@@ -166,6 +171,32 @@ export function main() {
            existingXHRs[0].setStatusCode(statusCode);
            existingXHRs[0].dispatchEvent('load');
          }));
+
+      it('should normalize responseText and response', inject([AsyncTestCompleter], async => {
+           var responseBody = 'Doge';
+
+           var connection1 =
+               new XHRConnection(sampleRequest, new MockBrowserXHR(), new ResponseOptions());
+
+           var connection2 =
+               new XHRConnection(sampleRequest, new MockBrowserXHR(), new ResponseOptions());
+
+           ObservableWrapper.subscribe<Response>(connection1.response, res => {
+             expect(res.text()).toBe(responseBody);
+
+             ObservableWrapper.subscribe<Response>(connection2.response, ress => {
+               expect(ress.text()).toBe(responseBody);
+               async.done();
+             });
+             existingXHRs[1].dispatchEvent('load');
+           });
+
+           existingXHRs[0].setResponseText(responseBody);
+           existingXHRs[1].setResponse(responseBody);
+
+           existingXHRs[0].dispatchEvent('load');
+         }));
+
     });
   });
 }