• Ying Rong, Wei Bao, Zhilei Shan, Jun Liu, Xuefeng Yu, Songfan Xia, Hui Gao, Xia Wang, Ping Yao, Frank B Hu, and Liegang Liu.
• Department of Nutrition and Food Hygiene, Hubei Key Laboratory of Food Nutrition and Safety, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China ; Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Environment and Health, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
• Plos One. 2013 Jan 1; 8 (9): e73272.

BackgroundMicroRNAs (miRNAs), a class of small non-coding RNAs, are thought to serve as crucial regulators of gene expression. Dysregulated expression of miRNAs has been described in various diseases and may contribute to related pathologic processes. Our aim was to examine circulating miRNA-146a levels in newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes mellitus (new-T2DM) patients from a Chinese Han population.Methodology/Principal FindingsCirculating miRNA-146a was extracted from plasma samples of 90 new-T2DM patients and 90 age- and sex-matched controls. Quantitative PCR assessment revealed that circulating miRNA-146a levels were significantly elevated in new-T2DM patients compared with controls. Participants in the highest tertile of circulating miRNA-146a levels showed a notably higher risk for new-T2DM (crude OR 4.333, 95% CI, 1.935 to 9.705, P = 0.001) than persons in the lowest tertile. Controlling for known risk factors and some biochemical indicators did not attenuate the aforementioned association. In addition, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves generated for miRNA-146a revealed an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.725 (95% CI, 0.651 to 0.799, P < 0.001). Moreover, higher circulating miRNA-146a levels were significantly associated with higher plasma heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) concentrations (β coefficient = 0.131, P < 0.001) and lower HOMA-beta (β coefficient = -0.153, P = 0.015).Conclusions/SignificanceWe found that circulating miRNA-146a levels were significantly elevated in new-T2DM patients compared with healthy controls. Whether expression of circulating miRNA-146a holds predictive value for T2DM warrants further investigations.

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