NPPA and cardiac hypertrophy: Importantly, up-regulation of tmTNF-α by TAPI-1 significantly alleviated TAC-induced cardiac hypertrophy and cardiac dysfunction, manifested by reduced heart size and HW/BW ratio (Fig 4D), increased EF (Fig 4E), and decreased TAC-induced transcription of ANP and BNP (Fig 4F and 4G).