Previous studies have indicated that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) were closely related to diabetes. In this study, we aimed to explore the possible role and mechanism of lncRNA MEG3 in the occurrence and development of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and its vascular complications. A case–control study involving 115 subjects was conducted, including 53 T2DM patients (37 patients with vascular complication and 16 patients without vascular complications) and 62 healthy subjects. We performed real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis of the lncRNA MEG3 and miR-146a levels in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) in the 115 samples. We found that the expression of lncRNA MEG3 was upregulated in the T2DM patients with vascular complication (DC group) compared with T2DM patients without vascular complication (D group) (P < 0.05) and the control group (P < 0.01). miR-146a levels in DC group were significantly lower compared with control group. There was a significant positive correlation between the expression of lncRNA MEG3 and glucose (GLU) (r = 0.301, P = 0.0011) and hemoglobin A1C (HbA1c) (r = 0.477, P = 0.0006). Our study suggests MEG3 may play as an important role in progression of diabetes-related vascular complications, contributing to a novel understanding of pathogenesis and prognosis for diabetes and its complications.

先前的研究表明，长的非编码RNA（lncRNA）与糖尿病密切相关。在这项研究中，我们旨在探讨lncRNA MEG3在2型糖尿病（T2DM）的发生和发展及其血管并发症中的可能作用和机制。进行了一项包括115名受试者的病例对照研究，包括53名T2DM患者（37名有血管并发症的患者和16名无血管并发症的患者）和62名健康受试者。我们对115个样本的外周血单核细胞（PBMC）中的lncRNA MEG3和miR-146a水平进行了实时聚合酶链反应（RT-PCR）分析。我们发现，与无血管并发症的T2DM患者（D组）相比，有血管并发症的T2DM患者（DC组）中lncRNA MEG3的表达上调（P  <0.05）和对照组（P  <0.01）。DC组的miR-146a水平明显低于对照组。lncRNA MEG3和葡萄糖（GLU）的表达之间存在显着正相关（r  = 0.301，P  = 0.0011）和血红蛋白A1C（HbA1c）（r  = 0.477，P  = 0.0006）。我们的研究表明，MEG3可能在糖尿病相关血管并发症的进展中起重要作用，有助于对糖尿病及其并发症的发病机理和预后有了新的认识。