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Adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors with capsids of AAV serotype 9 enable an efficient transduction of the heart upon intravenous injection of adult mice but also transduce the liver. The aim of this study was to improve specificity of AAV9 vector-mediated cardiac gene transfer by microRNA (miR)-dependent control of transgene expression. We constructed plasmids and AAV vectors containing target sites (TSs) of liver-specific miR122, miR192 and miR148a in the 3′ untranslated region (3′ UTR) of a luciferase expression cassette. Luciferase expression was efficiently suppressed in liver cell lines expressing high levels of the corresponding miRs, whereas luciferase expression was unaffected in cardiac myocytes. Intravenous injections of AAV9 vectors bearing three repeats of miR122 TS in the 3′ UTR of an enhanced green fluorescent expression (EGFP) expression cassette resulted in the absence of EGFP …