Studies have shown that TGFβ1 signalling pathway components, including TGFβ1, ENG and Smads, are markedly up-regulated at the site of injury after MI (Hao et al. 1999; Krum et al. 2002; Dean et al. 2005; Kapur et al. 2012), in patients suffering from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (Villarreal and Dillmann 1992, Li et al. 1998) and dilated cardiomyopathy (Pauschinger et al. 1999; Sanderson et al. 2001), and all these conditions are characterised by excessive fibrosis in the heart. The gene discussed is TGFB1; the disease is dilated cardiomyopathy.