Table 1.

Representative miRNAs regulating pathophysiology of AD

miRNA	Sample type	Cell	Regulation	Target	Function	Mechanism	Ref.
miR‐21	NA	VSMC	Increased	SMAD7	Promote phenotypic transition	TGF‐β signalling pathway	63
miR‐134‐5p	Thoracic aorta	VSMC	Decreased	STAT5B/ITGB1	Inhibit phenotypic transition/apoptosis	ITGB1/CRE signalling pathway	19
miR‐145	Ascending aorta	VSMC	Decreased	CTGF	Inhibit apoptosis	TGF‐β/SMAD3 signalling pathway	20, 67
miR‐320	Peripheral blood	Monocytes, macrophage	Decreased	MMP2/9	Inhibit degradation/remodelling of the ECM	Post‐transcriptional control	69
miR‐320d/582	Thoracic aorta	VSMC	Decreased	TRIAP1/NET1, COLIA1/SPP1	Inhibit apoptosis	Apoptotic pathway	21
miR‐144‐3p	Dissection specimens	VSMC	Increased	TE	Reduce elastin	Protein translation	73
miR‐146b	Peripheral blood	VSMC, EC, MPh	Increased	NF‐κB1/TRAF6/MMP6/ACTA2	Promote inflammation/apoptosis/ECM degradation	TLR/TGF‐β signalling pathway	76
miR‐146a‐5p	TAAD plasma sample and tissue	VSMC	Increased	SMAD4	Promote the proliferation and migration of VSMC	TGF‐β signalling pathway	82
miR‐30a	Ascending aorta	VSMC	Increased	LOX	Inhibit cross‐link collagen and elastin	Inhibit the protein abundance of LOX	83
miR‐143/145	Ascending aorta	VSMC	Decreased	TGF‐β1/P38‐MAPK	Inhibit phenotypic transition	TGF‐β1 signalling pathway	12, 52
miR‐4787‐5p/4306	Peripheral blood	VSMC	Increased	PKD1/TGF‐β1	Damage cell‐cell adhesion/inflammation	TGF‐β1 signalling pathway	90
miR‐26b	Ascending aorta	VSMC	Increased	HMGA2	Promote apoptosis EMT	TGF‐β signalling pathway	94

Abbreviations: EC, endothelial cell; ECM, extracellular matrix; EMT, endothelial‐mesenchymal transition; MPh, macrophages; TAAD, thoracic aortic aneurysm and dissection; TE, tropoelastin; VSMC, vascular smooth muscle cell.