Ischemic heart disease and the following myocardial infarction (MI) are leading causes of death in the United States. Every 36 seconds a person dies in the United States from cardiovascular disease, or 659,000 deaths each year, according to Centers for Disease Control (CDC). During the past decades, faster restoration of coronary blood flow has greatly limited the loss of myocardium, decreased 30-day in-hospital death, and increased survival rate during the acute phase of MI. However, patients who survived the acute MI are at a risk of developing late-onset heart failure. The rate of developing post-MI heart failure increases as the acute mortality decreases. However, the mechanisms underlying the adverse cardiac remodeling remains unclear. Consequently, it is still lacking effective treatments to prevent long-term mortality and morbidity. Animal models of myocardial infarction are crucial in mechanistical understanding of MI leading to heart failure and death in order to develop evidence-based intervention strategy. In addition, animal models of MI are important in developing cardiac regeneration strategy and to evaluate the efficacy of pharmacological intervention. This collection brings together various animal model systems for myocardial infarction, from mice, rats, rabbits, dogs, to non-human primates across lifespan. MI models include acute ischemic injury and transient ischemic reperfusion injury as well as evaluation for the severity. This will facilitate the mechanistic understanding of MI, post-MI remodeling, as well as test the efficacy of pharmacological intervention and heart regeneration strategy. Invited contributors are experts in using the MI models for active cardiac research.