Expression Level of Circulating miR-93 in Serum of Patients with Diabetic Nephropathy

Objective: Diabetic nephropathy is a long-term complication of diabetes and is manifested as reduced glomerular filtration rate, increased urinary albumin excretion, and glomerular lesions. The study aim was to determine the expression level of serum cell-free mir-93 in diabetic patients with or without DN and compare that to healthy controls. Material and Methods: In this case-control study, 61 type 2 diabetes patients (21 without diabetic nephropathy, 20 with microalbuminuria and 20 with macroalbuminuria), and 22 healthy controls were included. Cell-free microRNA was extracted from the serum of participants and real-time polymerase chain reaction was performed using SYBR Green master mix. The gene of hsa-miR-16 was used as a reference gene. Results: Our findings revealed a significant downregulation of miR-93 expression in the serum of diabetic patients with or without nephropathy compared to the healthy individuals (p<0.005). However, there was no significant difference between the three groups of diabetic patients presenting different degrees of nephropathy. Conclusion: Serum miR-93 is a good diagnostic marker for diabetes, but is not useful to distinguish between the diabetics with and without nephropathy.