Dysregulation of microRNA (miRNA) expression is associated with a susceptibility to many diseases, including atherosclerotic lesions of the coronary and carotid arteries and the development of clinical complications such as coronary heart disease, myocardial infarction, chronic cerebral ischemia, ischemic stroke. Recently, more and more studies analyze the miRNA regulome including a network of regulatory elements for the expression of miRNAs themselves and targets under their control. The review summarizes the data from articles concerned miRNA expression and changes in DNA methylation in the miRNA genes in human atherosclerotic arteries, as well as with the analysis of the association between single nucleotide polymorphisms and copy number variations in the miRNA genes with clinical complications of atherosclerosis.
Keywords: DNA methylation; atherosclerosis; copy number variations; expression; ischemic heart disease; ischemic stroke; microRNA regulome; myocardial infarction; single nucleotide variants.