Regulatory role of micrornas in sinoatrial node development and function

Abstract

Biological pacemaking is possible by modulating ionic currents by gene transfer or by delivering engineered pacemaker cells MicroRNAs are small non coding RNAs involved in posttranscriptional regulation MicroRNAs play a role in regulation of cardiac conduction systems and implicated in arrhythmogenesis We hypothesize the differences in ion channel activity and different action potential shape for different regions of the heart pacemaker atrium ventricle etc are mediated by miRNA regulation The present study hypothesizes the modulation or engineering of stem cells with miRNAs can improve cell based therapies for the treatment of arrhythmia The present study has identified miRNAs playing role in sinoatrial node functioning Using in silico tools the miRNAs targeting the pacemaker genetic network were predicted Nearly 53 miRNAs showed differential expression in sinoatrial node of pig heart Further we have studied the importance of these miRNAs during differentiation of stem cells to cardiac lineage newline