Here, we hypothesized that acute (1 week) and chronic (1, 3 and 6 months) exposure to DE (300 or 400 μg/m3, 6 hr/day, 5 days/week) would result in an exacerbation of cardiac hypertrophy and failure in mice when exposure occurred simultaneously with angiotensin II (Ang II) infusion or transverse aortic constriction (TAC). This evidence concerns the gene AGT and persistent truncus arteriosus.