ACE and Hypertension: Serum and urine parameters were measured to estimate kidney function, echocardiography was performed to monitor cardiac function and morphology, renal angiotensin convertase enzyme (ACE) activity and blood pressure measurements were performed to evaluate hypertension, histology was performed to assess renal and left ventricular hypertrophy and fibrosis, and RT-qPCR and Western blot were performed to detect the gene expression changes of selected hypertrophy, inflammatory, and fibrotic markers both in the kidney and left ventricular samples.