MiRNA inhibition in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine

MicroRNA (miRNA) are noncoding RNA that provide an endogenous negative feedback mechanism for translation of messenger RNA (mRNA) into protein. Single miRNAs can regulate hundreds of mRNAs, enabling miRNAs to orchestrate robust biological responses by simultaneously impacting multiple gene networks. MiRNAs can act as master regulators of normal and pathological tissue development, homeostasis, and repair, which has recently motivated expanding efforts toward development of technologies for therapeutically modulating miRNA activity for regenerative medicine and tissue engineering applications. This review highlights the tools currently available for miRNA inhibition and their recent therapeutic applications for improving tissue repair.