ACADS and cardiac hypertrophy: In this study, we observed a significant decrease in cardiac SCAD expression and enzyme activities in 2- (pre-hypertensive stage), 6- (developing hypertension) and 16- (established hypertension) week-old SHR compared with corresponding WKY rats, which suggested that reduction in SCAD expression may contribute directly to the pathogenesis of cardiac hypertrophy and was not an adaptive response caused by long-term differences in blood pressure.