HSPB8 and cardiac hypertrophy: In contrast to these beneficial effects of HSPB8 on cardiomyocyte function, overexpression of HSPB8 was also found to induce cardiac hypertrophy both in in vitro and in vivo model systems and reexpression of the cardiac fetal gene program and provoked cell growth pathways as well as proteasome activities (Depre et al. 2002; Hedhli et al. 2008).