Impact of microRNAs and long noncoding RNAs in skeletal and cardiac muscles

Recent advances in technology have accelerated our ability to define the functions of noncoding RNA (ncRNA). Beyond their known roles in regulating molecular and cellular processes, new mechanisms and interacting partners for ncRNAs have been revealed. In this review, we focus on recent discoveries of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) and microRNAs (miRNAs) in skeletal and cardiac muscles. In addition to sharing a sarcomeric organization and contractile function, both tissues also utilize similar mechanisms and genetic networks during myogenic differentiation, tissue repair, and regeneration and in disease progression. Thus, knowledge gained about the roles of these ncRNAs in cardiac and skeletal muscles may reveal shared mechanisms and functions relevant to both muscle types as well as to understanding their rules in other tissues. Ultimately, this information could be exploited to develop new diagnostic biomarkers and novel therapies for diseases affecting cardiac and skeletal muscle.