MicroRNAs as solutions are producing big power for heart regeneration

Abstract

Cardiovascular diseases have become a predominant cause of mankind death globally. In order to overcome the limited capacity of adult mammalian heart to regenerate for cardiac injury, promising progress has been made in uncovering molecular mechanisms that will promote cardiac regeneration. Recently, small non-coding RNAs, known as microRNAs (miRNAs) that alter target expression by post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression, have been demonstrated essential to cardiac development, pathology, regeneration and repair. These observations imply that miRNAs are potential therapeutic targets for patients with congenital and acquired cardiovascular diseases. In this review, we discuss the current findings attesting to the critical roles of miRNAs in heart morphogenesis, and the possibility of employing miRNAs to change cells fate and enhance cardiac regeneration.