Laboratory of Human Molecular Genetics, Universidade Luterana do Brasil (ULBRA), Canoas, RS, Brazil.
Endocrine Division, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre (HCPA), Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
J Cell Mol Med. 2019 Feb;23(2):1280-1287. doi: 10.1111/jcmm.14030. Epub 2018 Nov 23.
MicroRNAs (miRNAs/miRs) are involved in the pathogenesis of diabetes mellitus and its chronic complications, and their circulating levels have emerged as potential biomarkers for the development and progression of diabetes. However, few studies have examined the expression of miRNAs in diabetic retinopathy (DR) in humans. This case-control study aimed to investigate whether the plasma levels of miR-29b and miR-200b are associated with DR in 186 South Brazilians with type 2 diabetes (91 without DR, 46 with non-proliferative DR and 49 with proliferative DR). We also included 20 healthy blood donors to determine the miRNA expression in the general population. Plasma levels of miR-29b and miR-200b were quantified by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). Proliferative DR was inversely associated with plasma levels of miR-29b (unadjusted OR = 0.694, 95% CI: 0.535-0.900, P = 0.006) and miR-200b (unadjusted OR = 0.797, 95% CI: 0.637-0.997, P = 0.047). However, these associations were lost after controlling for demographic and clinical covariates. In addition, patients with type 2 diabetes had lower miR-200b levels than blood donors. Our findings reinforce the importance of addressing the role of circulating miRNAs, including miR-29 and miR-200b, in DR.
微小 RNA（miRNAs/miRs）参与糖尿病及其慢性并发症的发病机制，其循环水平已成为糖尿病发展和进展的潜在生物标志物。然而，很少有研究探讨人类糖尿病视网膜病变（DR）中 miRNAs 的表达。本病例对照研究旨在调查 186 名南巴西 2 型糖尿病患者（91 名无 DR、46 名非增殖性 DR 和 49 名增殖性 DR）的血浆 miR-29b 和 miR-200b 水平是否与 DR 相关。我们还纳入了 20 名健康献血者，以确定一般人群中的 miRNA 表达。通过逆转录定量聚合酶链反应（RT-qPCR）定量测定血浆 miR-29b 和 miR-200b 水平。未经调整的 OR 值分别为 0.694（95%CI：0.535-0.900，P=0.006）和 0.797（95%CI：0.637-0.997，P=0.047），提示增殖性 DR 与血浆 miR-29b 和 miR-200b 水平呈负相关。然而，在控制了人口统计学和临床协变量后，这些相关性消失了。此外，2 型糖尿病患者的 miR-200b 水平低于献血者。我们的发现强调了解决循环 miRNAs（包括 miR-29 和 miR-200b）在 DR 中的作用的重要性。
