Corroborating with the reduced cardiac muscle lesion observed in CD43 mutant mice, the relative copy number of CCL5 mRNA, an important chemokine that plays a central role in the control of T cell recruitment and myocarditis development during T. cruzi infection27,45, was much lower in CD43−/− than in WT mice (Fig. 6D). The gene discussed is SPN; the disease is myocarditis.