(A). Quantitative relative expression of mRNAs coding for CD31 (pecam1 gene), von Willbrand factor (vwf gene), Ve-cadherin (cdh5 gene), eNOS (nos3 gene), VEGF (vegfa gene), Stem Cell antigen 1 (Sca-1) (ly6a gene), Wilms’ tumour 1 (wt1 gene) and CD34 (cd34 gene). (B) Representative immunostainings against CD31 protein (green) of saline and BNP-treated unmanipulated hearts. Nuclei stained in blue with DAPI. CD31 staining intensity measured on at least 10 different pictures per heart and per area. The numbers of pixel obtained for saline-treated hearts related to the numbers obtained in BNP injected hearts. All the results are means ± SEM, # p<0.05 for different variance between groups, *p≤0.05 using unpaired T tests with or without Welch’s corrections.