Introduction The multifunctional serine protease thrombin exerts proinflammatory and
profibrotic cellular effects that may contribute to cardiac remodeling. This study was
designed to investigate whether direct thrombin inhibition with dabigatran attenuates
myocardial injury in the setting of pressure overload-induced heart failure. Material and
methods Transverse aortic constriction (TAC) surgery was performed on C57Bl/6J male
mice to elicit cardiac hypertrophy. TAC, or sham, mice were randomly assigned to receive …