In order to clarify the important role of myocardial Gal-3 expression during the early stage of heart failure, the time-course analysis of cardiac and serum Gal-3 in viral myocarditis, which was induced at 12, 24, 48, 96 h, 7 and 10 days after specific virus-inoculation, was performed using an animal model [31]. The gene discussed is LGALS3; the disease is viral myocarditis.