Abstract: Abnormal cholesterol levels lead to many cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. Redundant cholesterol acquired by extrahepatic tissues is delivered to the liver to excrete. This process is called reverse cholesterol transport (RCT), which maintains whole body cholesterol homeostasis. High density lipoprotein (HDL) is a key component of lipoproteins in plasma, and plays an important role in RCT. MicroRNAs are short noncoding RNAs and have vital roles in posttranscriptional regulation. They can regulate gene expression negatively by translational repression and degradation of target mRNAs. Previous results show that miR-33 can regulate cholesterol effux and HDL metabolism by repressing the expression of ABCA1 and ABCG1. Better understanding the regulation of HDL metabolism may benefit the development of novel strategies for the treatment of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.