Studies of other changes in DCM models have demonstrated that muscle LIM protein KO (MLP) (Arber et al., 1997) and tropomodulin-overexpressing transgenic (TOT) (Sussman et al., 1998) mice have a more irregular overall shape of cardiomyocytes, increased number of intercellular contacts. The gene discussed is CSRP3; the disease is familial dilated cardiomyopathy.