The Role of MicroRNAs in Diabetic Complications—Special Emphasis on Wound Healing

Abstract

Overweight and obesity are major problems in today’s society, driving the prevalence of diabetes and its related complications. It is important to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying the chronic complications in diabetes in order to develop better therapeutic approaches for these conditions. Some of the most important complications include macrovascular abnormalities, e.g., heart disease and atherosclerosis, and microvascular abnormalities, e.g., retinopathy, nephropathy and neuropathy, in particular diabetic foot ulceration. The highly conserved endogenous small non-coding RNA molecules, the micro RNAs (miRNAs) have in recent years been found to be involved in a number of biological processes, including the pathogenesis of disease. Their main function is to regulate post-transcriptional gene expression by binding to their target messenger RNAs (mRNAs), leading to mRNA degradation, suppression of translation or even gene activation. These molecules are promising therapeutic targets and demonstrate great potential as diagnostic biomarkers for disease. This review aims to describe the most recent findings regarding the important roles of miRNAs in diabetes and its complications, with special attention given to the different phases of diabetic wound healing.

Shear-Sensitive Genes in Aortic Valve Endothelium

“…miRNAs have been implicated in most diseases, either preserving physiological cell function or promoting pathological signaling and dysfunction. In cardiovascular diseases, major miRNAs have been thoroughly cataloged and analyzed; exciting miRNA targets have been found in atherosclerosis (70,90), heart failure (63), diabetes (88), and hypertension (91).…”

MIRNAS: Early Prognostic Biomarkers for Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus?

“…miR-126 regulates a number of angiogenic factors and acts by targeting VEGF [77]. It is also involved in leucocyte migration to wound site, endothelial cell proliferation, migration and neovascularization [77,78]. The increased oxygen consumption during hyperglycemic condition results in the upregulation of VEGF.…”

Genetic and molecular basis of diabetic foot ulcers: Clinical review

“…These One of the major causes of diabetes-associated morbidity and mortality is lower limb amputation, which is a consequence of DFU (6,7). In contrast to acute wounds that progress through the phases of wound healing linearly in healthy individuals, chronic wounds in diabetic patients become stalled in different phases and progression does not occur in synchrony due to diabetes associated neuropathy, microangiopathy and impaired immune function (58). Toll-like receptors are a class of proteins that play a key role in the innate immune system in subjects with DFUs.…”