['To provide an overview of the current knowledge of growth-differentiation factor 15 (GDF-15) in heart disease.', 'To identify relevant publications, we searched PubMED database combining the textual terms of heart, cardiac, cardiovascular disease with GDF-15.', 'Well-controlled, relatively large-scale, retrospective studies as well as meaningful individual cases were all selected as materials.', 'GDF-15 is a distant member of the transforming growth factor-β cytokine superfamily. In myocardium, GDF-15 is weakly expressed under physiological conditions. However, its expression level is increased in response to pathological stress. Growing evidence indicate that elevated levels of GDF-15 is a promising prognostic biomarker in cardiovascular diseases. Moreover, GDF-15 exhibits the properties of endogenous anti-hypertrophy of cardiomyocytes and protecting the heart suffering from ischemia and reperfusion insult.'] Does stress-induced growth-differentiation factor 15 play an intriguing role in cardiovascular diseases?