NPPB and cardiac hypertrophy: However, this finding has to be critically evaluated since another study showed that not all molecular markers of cardiac hypertrophy were consistently elevated in AGAT−/− mice, i.e., unchanged mRNA expression of brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) and beta myosin heavy chain (β-MHC) and reduced mRNA expression of alpha skeletal actin (α-SA)15.