Circulating MicroRNAs Reveals Common MicroRNAs Linked to Type 2 DiabetesThatChange

Summary This study providesacomparative Q:7 profiling of circulating miRNAs in T2Dcasesubjects andage- andsex-matchedcontrolsubjectsandtheidentificationofspecific miRNAs in the circulation thatare associated with insulin action. Toour knowledge, this is thefirst study toinvestigate the effect of metformintreatment and intralipid/heparininfusion on circulating miRNAs.Noteworthy, the modificationsobserved after metabolic changesinduced by metformin, insulin, andinsulin plus intralipid infusionsdemonstrate that components of thisprofileareregulatedinparalleltoinsulinaction. However, the current study hassomelimitationsthatmayimpactontheinterpretation of the results, and thisshould also be mentioned: 1)Therelatively small size of the cohortsanalyzed, which call for furthervalidations in extended samples. And2)sincechanges in the levels of circulatingmiRNAs as biomarkers do notnecessarily reflect deregulation ofmiRNAs expression inside cells, thefunctional roles and significance ofmiRNAsderegulatedinplasmafromT2Dpatients still need to be determined.However, from a clinical point of view,theresultsobtainedinthecurrentstudygive promising evidence for futureanalyses using circulating miRNAs toexamine the pathophysiology of T2D.Obviously, such studies are neededbeforeanymoredefiniteconclusioncanbe drawn. Nevertheless, the datapresented here might have directimplications for diabetologists, sincegenomic analyses in plasma may be apromising strategy for predictingmetabolic disturbances and can beextrapolated to quantifying the severityof metabolic diseases.