Case Control Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Diabetes. Aug 15, 2021; 12(8): 1282-1291
Published online Aug 15, 2021. doi: 10.4239/wjd.v12.i8.1282
Clinical significance of serum miR-129-5p in patients with diabetes mellitus presenting macrovascular complications
Xiao-Yun He, Chun-Lin Ou
Xiao-Yun He, Chun-Lin Ou, Department of Pathology, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha 410008, Hunan Province, China
Xiao-Yun He, Department of Endocrinology, Affiliated Hospital of Guilin Medical University, Guilin 541001, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China
Author contributions: He XY and Ou CL collected the data, drafted the manuscript, performed critical revision of the manuscript, and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81903032; China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, No. 2020M672520; Research Program of Hunan Health Commission, China, No. 202103030659; and Youth Fund of Xiangya Hospital, No. 2018Q011.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of the Affiliated Hospital of Guilin Medical University.
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest for this manuscript.
Data sharing statement: The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Chun-Lin Ou, PhD, Academic Research, Department of Pathology, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, No. 87 Xiangya Road, Kaifu District, Changsha 410008, Hunan Province, China. ouchunlin@csu.edu.cn
Received: January 28, 2021
Peer-review started: January 28, 2021
First decision: April 6, 2021
Revised: May 24, 2021
Accepted: July 6, 2021
Article in press: July 6, 2021
Published online: August 15, 2021
Processing time: 192 Days and 17.6 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

Diabetic macrovascular complications (DMCs) are the most common complications encountered during the course of diabetes mellitus (DM) with extremely high mortality rates.

Research motivation

There is an urgent need to identify specific and sensitive biomarkers for the early diagnosis of DMCs.

Research objectives

To investigate the expression and significance of serum miR-129-5p in patients with DM and macrovascular complications.

Research methods

Serum samples were collected from 36 healthy controls, 58 patients with DM presenting no macrovascular complications, and 62 patients with DMCs. The expression of miR-129-5p was detected using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Pearson’s correlation assay was performed to analyze the correlation between serum miR-129-5p levels and clinical indicators. Receiver operator characteristic analysis was conducted to analyze the diagnostic value of serum miR-129-5p in patients with DM or DMCs.

Research results

These finding demonstrated that serum expression of miR-129-5p was significantly higher in patients with DM and patients with DMCs than in the control group. Furthermore, the expression of serum miR-129-5p was significantly higher in patients with DMCs than in patients with DM (P < 0.05). Further evaluation revealed that the expression of serum miR-129-5p correlated significantly with smoking history, disease duration, and HbA1c in patients with DMCs (P < 0.001). Additionally, the AUC of miR-129-5p as a serum marker was 0.964 (95%CI: 0.930-0.997, P < 0.001) in distinguishing between patients with DM and healthy controls, whereas the AUC of miR-129-5p as a serum marker was 0.979 (95%CI: 0.959-0.999, P < 0.001) in distinguishing between patients with DMCs and healthy controls.

Research conclusions

Elevated serum miR-129-5p expression levels correlate with the development of DMCs and can be utilized as a novel early diagnostic biomarker for DM combined with macrovascular complications.

Research perspectives

The high serum miR-129-5p expression is related to the development of DMCs and can be employed as a novel early diagnostic biomarker for DM combined with macrovascular complications.