In order to clarify the important role of cardiac 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, 168 and 240 hours after a specific virus inoculation, was performed using a mouse model [13]. The gene discussed is LGALS3; the disease is heart failure.