Mesenchymal stem cells have great application prospects in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine as seed cells, especially have evoked the extensive attention in the application of bone tissue engineering. Mechanisms of osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells are complicated. It is affected by various factors. Different kinds of miRNA can inhibit or promote the osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells respectively, it plays a key role in the differentiation process. In this paper, miRNA in different roles was classified and summarized, expecting to provide ideas for future research.