EPO and myocardial infarction: Westenbrink and colleagues showed that erythropoietin increased VEGF protein expression predominantly in cardiomyocytes and was associated with a 37% increase in capillary density and significantly improved cardiac performance in rats post-myocardial infarction while administration of the VEGF neutralizing antibodies abrogated the salutary effects of erythropoietin on cardiac microvascularization and function.