Abstract:Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) hold great promises for regenerative medicine that may cure a variety of diseases including diabetes and neurodegenerative diseases. Derived from the inner cell mass of preimplantation blastocyst， this cell culture artifact can undergo rapid self-renewal indefinitely while keeping the ability to differentiate into any cells in the body. The key to harness their potential for regenerative medicine is to control their proliferation and differentiation. For this reason we need to understand the molecular mechanisms governing the self-renewal and differentiation of ESCs. Multiple layers of regulation imposed by signaling pathways， chromatin modifications and high-order chromatin structures， transcription factors， microRNAs and large noncoding RNAs have been shown to be important for the self-renewal and differentiation of ESCs. In this short review， we will briefly summarize the current understanding of microRNA functions in ESCs， we will also discuss the major future directions of the field.