Accumulating evidence suggests that osteopontin plays an indispensable role in the myocardial healing processes after MI by regulating a variety of processes, including accumulation of apoptotic cells in the infarcted myocardium [99], attenuated myocardial fibrogenesis [122], augmented MMP-2 and MMP-9 activation [122], and impaired myocardial capillarization [95]. This evidence concerns the gene MMP9 and myocardial infarction.