MicroRNA and cardiac pathologies.

MicroRNA has been shown to be essential for correct cardiovascular development and physiology in a number of recent reports. Studies have also started to characterize the link between specific microRNAs and aspects of pathogenesis--such as chamber morphogenesis, conduction, and contraction--and between microRNA expression signatures and pathological cardiac phenotypes--such as hypertrophy, ischemic cardiomyopathy, dilated cardiomyopathy, and aortic stenosis. Congenital anomalies of the heart may also be associated with the dysregulation of specific microRNAs. Here we report on the latest findings.