NPPB and cardiac hypertrophy: The expression of cardiac hypertrophy (alpha-MHC and beta-MHC), fibrosis (collagen type I alpha 1 - Col1a1- and collagen type III alpha 1- Col3a1-) and heart failure (A-type natriuretic peptide [ANP] and B-type natriuretic peptide [BNP]) markers were measured by qRT-PCR at week 1, 3, and 19 (Tables 4, 5).