Microribonucleic acids and vascular restenosis

Zhi-Xing Fan; Jian Yang

Abstract

Microribonucleic acids (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs, which control diverse cellular functions by either promoting degradation or inhibiting target messenger RNA translation. An aberrant expression profile of miRNAs has been linked to human diseases, including cardiovascular dysfunction. This review summarizes the latest insights in the identification of vascular-specific miRNAs and the underlying mechanisms for their roles in vascular restenosis mainly by influencing the proliferation and migration of vascular smooth muscle cell. Here, we discuss miRNA-based drug and gene therapy in vascular restenosis.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.