In a mouse model of cardiac myosin immunized-mice, the absence of IL-12R significantly reduced cardiac immune responses and delayed the progression of autoimmune cardiomyopathy, whereas knockout of the STAT4 pathway and IFN-γ significantly reversed the protective effect of IL-12 in autoimmune cardiomyopathy (Afanasyeva et al., 2001). Here, STAT4 is linked to autoimmune cardiomyopathy.