MicroRNA regulation of cardiovascular functions.

In the past decade, microRNAs (miRNA) have emerged as important regulators of posttranscriptional gene regulation, thereby “fine-tuning” the levels of gene expression during development and stress. miRNA are 22-nucleotide RNA molecules that are derived from intronic, exonic, or pseudogenic DNA. miRNA is processed by the enzymes Drosha and Dicer and can hybridize to the 3′-untranslated region of mRNA loaded onto the RNA-induced silencing complex. miRNA can then regulate mRNA and protein levels by promoting RNA decay or interfering with mRNA translation into protein. In the cardiovascular system, miRNA have been profiled …