SDC4 and hydrops fetalis: Moreover, previous studies have suggested that GPNMB serves as an inflammatory stop signal in HF that inhibits the activation of T lymphocytes by binding syndecan 4 (Chung, Sato et al. 2007), a proteoglycan that is up-regulated in chronic HF (Takahashi, Negishi et al. 2011) and has been previously shown to adversely influence cardiac remodeling (Kojima, Takagi et al. 2001).