Large scale projects such as FANTOM and ENCODE led to a revolution in our comprehension of the mammalian transcriptomes by revealing that ~53% of the produced RNAs do not encode for proteins. These transcripts, defined as noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs), constitute a heterogeneous group of molecules which can be categorized in two main classes, namely small and long, according to their length. In animals, the first-class includes Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs), small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) and microRNAs (miRNAs). Among them, the best-characterized subgroup is represented by miRNAs, which are known to regulate gene expression largely at the post-transcriptional level. In contrast, long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) represent a more heterogeneous group of > 200 nucleotides long transcripts, that act through a variety of mechanisms at both transcriptional and posttranscriptional level.

Here, we discuss how miRNAs and lncRNAs are emerging as pivotal regulators of cardiac muscle development and how the alteration of ncRNA expression was seen to disturb the physiology of all the different cell types forming the cardiac tissue. Particular emphasis is given to those species that are expressed and are known to regulate the capacity of cardiac progenitor cells (CPCs), currently used in regenerative medicine protocols, to proliferate and differentiate. Understanding how the ncRNAmediated circuitries regulate heart homeostasis is one of the research areas expected to have a high impact, improving the therapeutic efficacy of stem/progenitor-cells treatments for translation into clinical applications.

FANTOM 和 ENCODE 等大规模项目揭示了约 53% 的产生的 RNA 不编码蛋白质，从而导致我们对哺乳动物转录组的理解发生了革命。这些被定义为非编码 RNA (ncRNA) 的转录物构成了一组异质分子，根据它们的长度，可以将其分为两大类，即小类和长类。在动物中，第一类包括 Piwi 相互作用 RNA (piRNA)、小干扰 RNA (siRNA) 和微 RNA (miRNA)。其中，特征最好的亚组由 miRNA 代表，已知其主要在转录后水平调节基因表达。相比之下，长链非编码 RNA (lncRNAs) 代表了一个更具异质性的组 > 200 个核苷酸长的转录本，

在这里，我们讨论了 miRNA 和 lncRNA 如何成为心肌发育的关键调节因子，以及 ncRNA 表达的改变如何扰乱形成心肌组织的所有不同细胞类型的生理机能。特别强调那些表达并已知可调节目前用于再生医学协议的心脏祖细胞 (CPC) 增殖和分化能力的物种。了解 ncRNA 介导的电路如何调节心脏稳态是有望产生重大影响的研究领域之一，可提高干/祖细胞治疗转化为临床应用的治疗效果。