ANGPT1 and heart failure: However, the pathological roles of ACE2 remain to be elucidated, since studies have shown increased ACE2 mRNA expression in patients with ischemic and idiopathic cardiomyopathy and elevated ANG (1‐7) levels in subjects with cardiac insufficiency, which according to these authors may reflect either the deleterious effects of excessive ACE2 activity or a physiological attempt to protect cardiac tissue through the ACE2/ANG (1‐7)/MAS receptor axis (Zisman et al.