Abstract:

Objective    To study expression and clinical significance of peripheral diabetes-related microRNA (miRNA), miR-34a,  during the onset of type 2 diabetes (T2D). Methods    63 subjects were recruited, including 18 cases of newly diagnosed T2D (n-T2D), 19 cases of prediabetes and 26 T2D-susceptible with normal glucose tolerance (s-NGT). All diagnoses were confirmed by a 2-hour oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). Serum miR-34a levels were determined by real-time PCR (RT-PCR).  Results    Serum miR-34a levels showed a stepwise increase  from s-NGT, pre-diabetes to n-T2D. Its expression in n-T2D was significantly higher than that in s-NGT and pre-diabetes, while no significant difference was observed between the latter two (P＞0.05). Conclusions    MiR-34a plays important roles during the onset of T2D, however, its expression in peripheral blood is not significantly up-regulated in the pre-diabetic stage.

Key words: Type 2 diabetes (T2D)； Impaired glucose tolerance (IGT)；  Impaired fasting glucose (IFG)； Circulating MicroRNA