Next Generation Sequencing of miRNA profile in HFD-induced diabetic ICR liver tissue treated by a Chinese formula

Objective: To investigate the impact of JTXK granule on the miRNA expression profiles in hepatic tissue of diabetic mice, and to explore the molecular targets and associated signaling pathways of JTXK granule in its anti-diabetic effect. Methods: High fat diet was used to induce diabetic model, and mice were subsequently divided into JTXK-treated group and model group. After 8 weeks' intervention we screened the differentially expressed miRNAs between the two groups using microRNA sequencing analysis (3 mice in each group). Finally, miRNA target gene prediction, GO and KEGG analysis were applied to explore the function of DEMs. Results: A total of 33 significantly differentiated miRNAs were detected in comparison between the two groups (|log2(fold change) |>0.3, P<0.05). MiRNA-mRNA analysis showed that mmu-miR-30a-5p, mmu-miR-23b-5p, mmu-miR-199a-5p, mmu-miR-425-5p and mmu-miR-214-3p are closely related to inflammatory response, histological changes and insulin signal transduction in liver. In addition, KEGG analysis showed that the DEMs were closely related to Ras and insulin signaling pathway. Conclusion: JTXK granule exerts anti-diabetic effect in hepatic tissue of diabetic mice by modulating miRNAs and mRNAs network. Overall design: Liver miRNA profiles of 30-week old ICR mice were generated by NGS using Illumina HiSeq.