There were very few CD68-positive macrophages in the myocardium of sham-operated rats and remote myocardium of rats with MI (areal percentage < 1%), but they were present in the infarcted area (Figure 1A), where the area of CD68 staining decreased gradually from day 3 (15 ± 3.9%) to week 1 (9.5 ± 2.6%, P = 0.0072) and week 12 (4.3 ± 1.2%, P = 0.0048) (Figure 1B). This evidence concerns the gene CD68 and myocardial infarction.