RNA and Cardiovascular Research Laboratory, Department of Anesthesiology, New Jersey Medical School, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Newark, NJ 07101, USA.
J Cardiovasc Pharmacol. 2011 Jan;57(1):8-12. doi: 10.1097/FJC.0b013e318203759b.
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a novel class of endogenous, small, noncoding RNAs that regulate gene expression via degradation, translational inhibition, or translational activation of their target messenger RNAs. Functionally, an individual miRNA is important as a transcription factor because it is able to regulate the expression of its multiple target genes. As a group, miRNAs are able to directly regulate at least 30% of genes in a cell. In addition, other genes may also be regulated indirectly by miRNAs. It is therefore not surprising that miRNAs could be the pivotal regulators in normal development, physiology, and pathology. Recent studies have identified that miRNAs are highly expressed in vasculature and their expression is dysregulated in diseased vessels. miRNAs are found to be critical modulators for vascular cell functions such as cell differentiation, contraction, migration, proliferation, and apoptosis. Accordingly, miRNAs are involved in the vascular dysfunction, ischemic angiogenesis, reendothelialization, and vascular neointimal lesion formation under diverse vascular diseases. miRNAs may serve as novel therapeutic targets for vascular diseases such as impaired angiogenesis or reendothelialization, restenosis, atherosclerosis, hypertension, and diabetic vascular complication. This review article summarizes the research progress regarding the roles of miRNAs in vascular diseases.
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) 是一类新型的内源性、小的、非编码 RNA，通过降解、翻译抑制或翻译激活其靶信使 RNA 来调节基因表达。在功能上，单个 miRNA 作为转录因子非常重要，因为它能够调节其多个靶基因的表达。作为一个整体，miRNAs 能够直接调节细胞中至少 30%的基因。此外，其他基因也可能通过 miRNAs 间接受到调节。因此，miRNAs 可能是正常发育、生理和病理过程中的关键调节因子并不奇怪。最近的研究表明，miRNAs 在血管中高度表达，其在病变血管中的表达失调。miRNAs 被发现是血管细胞功能的关键调节因子，如细胞分化、收缩、迁移、增殖和凋亡。因此，miRNAs 参与了多种血管疾病下的血管功能障碍、缺血性血管生成、再内皮化和血管新生内膜形成。miRNAs 可能成为血管疾病（如血管生成受损或再内皮化、再狭窄、动脉粥样硬化、高血压和糖尿病血管并发症）的新型治疗靶点。本文综述了 miRNAs 在血管疾病中的作用的研究进展。
