miR-126: a potential new key player in hypoxia and reperfusion?

It is well known that microRNAs (miRNAs) have recently emerged as multifaceted regulators of biological processes and thus of various diseases. miRNAs are small single-stranded non-coding RNAs that bind to their cognate messenger RNAs (mRNAs) via recognition of seed sequences, i.e., the 2^nd–8^th nucleotide of the miRNA. This binding can trigger mRNA degradation and translational repression leading to a decrease in the protein products encoded by the corresponding mRNA.