Taking into account the inherent limitations in our experimental setup (swelling of paws in mice with CIA), to test the cardiac symptoms of HF such as breathlessness and fatigue during exercise, we relied on the plasma levels of B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), a clinically used biomarker of HF, to confirm the presence of HF as described before (19). This evidence concerns the gene NPPB and hydrops fetalis.