Ceived and designed the experiments, performed western blotting, immunohistochemistry, and data analysis, and wrote the manuscript. LZ performed immunohistochemistry and contributed to writing of the manuscript. JN performed animal surgeries and cardiac function analysis. SP performed and participated in in vitro experiments. DM helped in design of the study. MG conceived and designed the experiments and helped in writing of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Acknowledgments We thank Lorraine Feehery for her contribution in animal surgeries and cardiac function analysis and proofreading the manuscript. The study was supported by the NIH RO1 AG027263 grant and Sun order GW856553X Health Foundation. Author details 1 Cardiovascular Research Laboratory, Banner Sun Health Research Institute, 10515 W. Santa Fe Drive, Sun City, AZ 85351, USA. 2L. J Roberts Center for Alzheimer’s Research at Banner Sun Health Research Institute, Sun City, AZ, USA. Received: 22 January 2014 Accepted: 2 June 2014 Published: 2 July 2014 References 1. Porter KE, Turner NA: Cardiac fibroblasts: at the heart of myocardial remodeling. Pharmacol Ther 2009, 132:255?78. 2. Squires CE, Escobar GP, Payne JF, Leonardi RA, Goshorn DK, Sheats NJ, Mains IM, Mingoia JT, Flack EC, Lindsey ML: Altered fibroblast function following myocardial infarction. J Mol Cell Cardiol 2005, 39:699?07. 3. van den Borne SW, Diez J, Blankesteijn WM, Verjans J, Hofstra L, Narula J: Myocardial remodeling after infarction: the role of myofibroblasts. Nat Rev Cardiol 2010, 7:30?7. 4. Xie M, Hill JA: HDAC-dependent ventricular remodeling. Trends Cardiovasc Med 2013, 23:229?35. 5. Montgomery RL, Davis CA, Potthoff MJ, Haberland M, Fielitz J, Qi X, Hill JA, Richardson JA, Olson EN: Histone deacetylases 1 and 2 redundantly regulate cardiac morphogenesis, growth, and contractility. Genes Dev 2007, 21:1790?802. 6. Marumo T, Hishikawa K, Yoshikawa M, Hirahashi J, Kawachi S, Fujita T: Histone deacetylase modulates the proinflammatory and -fibrotic changes in tubulointerstitial injury. Am J Physiol Renal Physiol 2010, 298:F133 141. 7. Noh H, Oh EY, Seo JY, Yu MR, Kim YO, Ha H, Lee HB: Histone deacetylase-2 is a key regulator of diabetes- and transforming growth factor-beta1induced renal injury. Am J Physiol Renal Physiol 2009, 297:F729 739. 8. Guo W, Shan B, Klingsberg RC, Qin X, Lasky JA: Abrogation of TGF-beta1induced fibroblast-myofibroblast differentiation by histone deacetylase inhibition. Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol 2009, 297:L864 870. 9. Kee HJ, Sohn IS, Nam KI, Park JE, Qian YR, Yin Z, Ahn Y, Jeong MH, Bang YJ, Kim N, Kim JK, Kim KK, Epstein JA, Kook H: Inhibition of histone deacetylation blocks cardiac hypertrophy induced by angiotensin II infusion and aortic banding. Circulation 2006, 113:51?9. 10. Kook H, Lepore JJ, Gitler AD, Lu MM, Wing-Man Yung W, Mackay J, Zhou R, Ferrari V, Gruber P, Epstein JA: Cardiac hypertrophy and histone 16.17.18.19.20. 21.22.23.24.25.26.27.28. 29.30.31.32.deacetylase-dependent transcriptional repression mediated by the atypical homeodomain protein Hop. J Clin Invest 2003, 112:863?71. Lee TM, Lin MS, Chang NC: Inhibition of histone deacetylase on ventricular remodeling in infarcted rats. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 2007, 293:H968 977. Zhang L, Chen B, Zhao Y, Dubielecka PM, Wei L, Qin GJ, Chin YE, Wang Y, Zhao TC: Inhibition of histone deacetylase-induced PubMed ID:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29045898 myocardial repair is mediated by c-kit in infarcted hearts. J Biol Chem 2012, 287:39338?.