Transmural sections rapidly frozen and separated into epicardial and endocardial segments demonstrated greater mRNA expression of Sema3a in the endocardium of DCM compared with control hearts, while epicardial levels of Sema3a and endocardial or epicardial levels of NGF were not significantly different between DCM and WT hearts (Figure 3G). This evidence concerns the gene SEMA3A and familial dilated cardiomyopathy.