Circulating miRNAs miR-574-5p and miR-3135b are potential metabolic regulators for serum lipids and blood glucose in gestational diabetes mellitus

Abstract

Objectives

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are potentially involved in the regulation of glucose and lipid metabolism. The aim of this study was to investigate potential miRNA regulators for serum lipids and blood glucose in gestational diabetes mellitus.

Methods

Plasma samples were obtained from 53 women with GDM and 46 normal pregnant women. Fasting blood glucose and a blood lipid profile were measured. Plasma miRNA expression profiles were analyzed using microarray. To verify the microarray data, the expression of miRNAs was evaluated by real-time PCR. Gene ontology (GO) and genes and genomics (KEGG) pathway enrichment of the predicted target genes of miRNAs were analyzed.

Results

The miRNA expression profiles of plasma samples from healthy and GDM women are distinct. We identified 93 differently expressed miRNAs. Compared with healthy pregnant women, 48 miRNAs including miR-574-5p and miR-3135b exhibited significantly lower expression in plasma samples from GDM patients. The expression of miR-574-5p was significantly correlated with levels of blood glucose and LDL-C; miR-3135b was significantly correlated with HDL-C. Some predicted common target genes of these two miRNAs are associated with the metabolism of glucose and lipids as well as the insulin signaling pathway.

Conclusions

miR-574-5p and miR-3135b may serve as metabolic regulators of glucose and lipids for GDM.

摘要

目的：微小RNA（miRNA）可能参与葡萄糖和脂质代谢的调节。本研究的目的是研究妊娠期糖尿病中血脂和血糖的潜在 miRNA 调节剂。

方法：血浆样本来自 53 名 GDM 女性和 46 名正常孕妇。测量空腹血糖和血脂谱。使用微阵列分析血浆miRNA表达谱。为了验证微阵列数据, 通过实时 PCR 评估 miRNA 的表达。分析了预测的miRNA靶基因的基因本体论（GO）和基因和基因组学（KEGG）途径富集。

结果：来自健康和 GDM 女性的血浆样本的 miRNA 表达谱是不同的。我们鉴定了 93 种不同表达的 miRNA。与健康孕妇相比, 包括 miR-574-5p 和 miR-3135b 在内的 48 种 miRNA 在 GDM 患者血浆样品中的表达显着降低。 miR-574-5p的表达与血糖、LDL-C水平显着相关； miR-3135b 与 HDL-C 显着相关。这两种miRNA的一些预测的共同靶基因与葡萄糖和脂质的代谢以及胰岛素信号通路有关。

结论：miR-574-5p 和 miR-3135b 可能作为 GDM 的葡萄糖和脂质代谢调节剂。

Keywords:

• GDM
• microRNA
• miR-574-5p
• miR-3135b
• metabolic regulators

Ethical approval

The Ethics Committee of the School of Medicine of Ningbo University approved the publication of material relating to the participants in domestic and international academic journals.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by grants from the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang province [LQ16H100001]; the National Natural Science Foundation of China [81501421 and 81700436]; and the Natural Science Foundation of Ningbo Municipality [2017C50041 and 2018A610378].