A later study (Bironaite et al., 2015) surveyed caspase-9 expression in patients with inflammation-positive DCM and inflammation-negative DCM, and found higher levels of caspase-9 compared to caspase-8 or caspase-3, with differential expression in serum and endomyocardial biopsy samples. This evidence concerns the gene CASP3 and familial dilated cardiomyopathy.