Angiogenesis is defined as formation and growth of new blood vessels that sprout from existing vascular network. Angiogenesis plays a very important role in the physiological and pathological situations such as development, ischemia, atherosclerosis, wound healing, and cancer growth and metastasis. MicroRNAs (miRNAs or miRs) are endogenous, short, noncoding RNAs found in eukaryotic cells. MiRs are major posttranscriptional regulators that negatively regulate gene expression by binding to their target messenger RNAs for degradation and/or translational repression. The main function of miRs is gene regulation. MiRs have been found to modulate many pathophysiological process including cell differentiation, contraction, migration, proliferation, apoptosis, and tissue inflammation. There are more than 1, 000 miRs in human genome, some of them are involved in angiogenesis. In this review, we will summarize the recent progress on function of miRs in angiogenesis.
