Circulating miR-146a in Healthy Aging and Type 2 Diabetes: Age- and Gender-Specific Trajectories

Publication date: Available online 14 March 2019Source: Mechanisms of Ageing and DevelopmentAuthor(s): Emanuela Mensà, Angelica Giuliani, Giulia Matacchione, Felicia Gurău, Anna Rita Bonfigli, Fabio Romagnoli, Maria De Luca, Jacopo Sabbatinelli, Fabiola OlivieriAbstractTo evaluate the combined effect of age and glycemic state on circulating levels of the inflamma-miR‐146a levels, 188 healthy subjects (CTR) aged 20-104 years and 144 type-2 diabetic patients (T2DM), aged 40‐80 years, were analyzed. In CTR subjects, miR-146a levels showed a significant age-related decline. When a gender-stratified analysis was ran, the miR‐146a age-related trajectory was confirmed only in men and a negative correlation with PAI-1, uric acid, and creatinine was also observed. In women, miR-146a circulating levels showed negative correlations with azotemia, uric acid, waist/hip ratio and ferritin. A significant miR-146a decline with aging was also observed in T2DM patients. Significant positive correlations were found between miR-146a in diabetic patients and total cholesterol, LDL-C, ApoA1, ApoB, and platelets, and negative correlations with serum iron and ferritin. Notably, miR-146a was significantly overexpressed in T2DM patients treated with metformin. MiR-146a levels were significantly lower in diabetic patients than in age-matched CTR and negatively correlated to both fasting glucose and HbA1c in males. Finally, age-related trajectories for circulating miR-146a levels showed an inver...
Source: Mechanisms of Ageing and Development - Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research