Total RNA was extracted from CD34+ cells and quantitative RT-PCR was performed as described previously14 (link). FAM-labeled primers (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA) were used: ACE (Hs01104600_m1), ACE2 (Hs01085333_m1), Mas (Hs00267157_s1), AT2R (Hs00169126_m1). All samples were run in duplicate and normalized to 18s (Hs99999901_s1) cDNA.