Role of microRNAs in Cardiovascular Biology

Abstract

Abstract Remarkable advances in cardiac developmental biology over the last decade have revealed elegant networks of signaling and transcriptional cascades that regulate cardiomyocyte commitment and organogenesis. Differentiation is often reinforced via positive and negative feedback loops that serve to irreversibly control sequential cell fate decisions. As pluripotent cells become progressively specialized, it may be equally important to promote specific gene programs and also suppress unwanted pathways to allow cell type‐specific protein expression. This is likely accomplished in part by differential transcription, but recent reports suggest that this process is also regulated at the level of translation. microRNAs (miRNAs) have emerged as endogenous and widely used mediators of translational repression and likely influence most important cellular processes. Here, we will review the emerging role of miRNAs in translational regulation during cardiac development and disease and consider the potentially broad impact of this rapidly evolving field on cardiovascular research.