Martínez-Fernández, JavierAlmengló Buzón, CristinaBabarro, BorjaIglesias Rey, RamónGarcía-Caballero Parada, TomásFernández, Ángel L.Souto Bayarri, José MiguelGonzález Juanatey, José RamónÁlvarez Castro, Ezequiel2024-03-052024-03-052024European Journal of Pharmacology Volume 962, 5 January 2024, 1762160014-2999http://hdl.handle.net/10347/32986Background The sequelae of myocardial infarction (MI) require specific pharmacological therapy to minimise the post-MI remodelling, which in many cases evolves into cardiovascular complications. The aim of this study was to analyse the effect of edoxaban, an oral anticoagulant, on cardiac recovery in a rat model of permanent coronary artery ligation. Methods An experimental method to assess the post-MI remodelling in rats for 4 weeks, based on cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and final histological analysis of the hearts was performed. The influence of daily oral treatment with edoxaban (20 mg/kg/day) for 28 days post-MI was analysed in comparison to vehicle. Results In our model, edoxaban was shown to be safe and bleeding was observed in 1 of 10 animals. General physical recovery of the treated animals was shown by higher body weight recovery compared with non-treated animals (38.6 ± 2.9 vs. 29.9 ± 3.1 g, respectively, after 28 days). There was not a pronounced effect of edoxaban in post-MI cardiac remodelling, but mitigated fibrosis was observed by the reduced expression of vascular endothelial growth factor and tumour growth factor β1 in the peri-infarct zone. Conclusions Our analysis provided the experimental basis to support the feasibility of MRI to study cardiac function and characterise myocardial scarring in a rat model. Overall data suggested the safety of edoxaban in the model, and compared to placebo, it showed a better post-MI recovery, probably by reducing fibrosis of the heart. Further research on mid-term cardiac recovery with edoxaban after MI is justified.eng© 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND licenseAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacionalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/EdoxabanAcute myocardial infarction experimental modelCardiac remodelling after infarctionCardiac magnetic resonance imagingPost-infarction anticoagulant treatmentjournal article10.1016/j.ejphar.2023.176216open access