Critically, in a mouse model of pediatric dilated cardiomyopathy, increased circulatory GDF15 levels led to decreased body mass and impaired liver growth hormone (GF) signaling, which can be rescued by cardiomyocyte-specific knockdown of Gdf15, suggesting GDF15 functions as a heart-to-liver endocrine signal that inhibits body growth in the mouse (Wang et al., 2017). Here, GDF15 is linked to dilated cardiomyopathy.