MEF2A and heart failure: Of note here is that in three independent large scale studies, the efficacy of β-adrenergic blockade in heart failure patients was reproducible and resulted in an approximate reduction by a third in the risk of death.44 A statistic that is unparalleled by any other drug used to treat heart failure.44 On the basis of our studies, our tenet is that there are no doubt multiple mechanisms contributing to this favorable outcome, one of which might be enhanced cardiac myocyte survival mediated by MEF2-dependent gene expression.