Interestingly, previous studies revealed that Meflin+ cells proliferate during chronic cardiac diseases, where Meflin functions in tissue repair after acute myocardial infarction and has an anti-fibrotic role by augmenting the signaling of bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) 7; BMP7 is known to counteract the pro-fibrotic transforming growth factor β (TGF-β) pathway30,31. This evidence concerns the gene ISLR and acute myocardial infarction.