Atrial remodeling in atrial fibrillation and association between microRNA network and atrial fibrillation

Atrial fibrillation （AF） remains one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the world which are related to palpita- tions, fainting, congestive heart failure or stroke. The mechanism for atria/fibrillation has been identified as electrical remod- eling, structure remodeling and intracellular calcium handling remodeling, microRNAs （miRNAs） have recently emerged as one of the important factors in regulating gene expression. So far, thousands of miRNA genes have been found in diverse ani- mals with the function of regulating cell death, cell proliferation, haematopoiesis and even participate in the processing of car- diovascular disease. In this review, we summarize the mechanism of AF and the association of microRNAs network with AF. We provide a potential perspective of miRNAs as the therapeutic target for AF.