VEGFA and myocardial infarction: At the meantime, β2-adrenoceptor (β2-AR) overexpression has been demonstrated in the ischemic rat femoral artery in which upregulated β2-ARs trigger VEGF-induced endothelial cell proliferation (Iaccarino et al., 2005) or in a rat model of post-myocardial infarction heart failure, driving VEGF-induced endothelial proliferation (Galasso et al., 2013).