AGT and cardiac hypertrophy: Echocardiography of wild-type mice revealed reduced systolic and diastolic functions in those with angiotensin- (AngII-) induced myocardial hypertrophy; as such, associated cardiac ejection fraction (EF) and short-axis shortening (FS) were significantly decreased (P < 0.05) compared to mice in the control group (Figures 1(a) and 1(b)).