AGT and Obesity: The significance of these results relates to disease states associated with increases in systemic or locally formed AngII, including obesity-related hypertension (Yiannikouris et al. 2012), heart failure (Staroukine et al. 1984; Pedersen et al. 1986), and cirrhosis (Wernze et al. 1978; Asbert et al. 1992).