Compared to wild-type mice, transgenic mice overexpressing a mature form (cys223,225ser) of TGF-β1 (Fig. 1A) displayed cardiac hypertrophy, as indicated by an increase in heart weight (170.5±3.4 vs. 122.3±3.4 mg; p<0.05) with no change in body weight, resulting in a significant increase of the heart-to-body-weight ratio (6.8±0.1 vs. 5.1±0.1 mg/g; p<0.05; Fig. 1B). This evidence concerns the gene TGFB1 and cardiac hypertrophy.