More interestingly, the average expression levels of MERTK, a cell surface receptor well known to be a marker of macrophage efferocytosis (22, 36–38), were coincidentally decreased by 1.92-fold in cardiac macrophages of human DCM, when compared with NF hearts (P < 0.001, Figure 1C). Here, CD177 is linked to familial dilated cardiomyopathy.