Liver microRNA transcriptome reveals miR-182 as link between type 2 diabetes and fatty liver disease in obesity

Although the global prevalence of type 2 diabetes is still rising, the molecular mechanisms of dysregulated glucose and lipid metabolism are still incompletely understood. Epigenetic mechanisms were shown to have an impact in disease manifestation, but still the hepatic miRNA expression signature in diabetic subjects was not completely elucidated. We used microarrays to performe a genome wide screen of the complete noncoding RNA transcriptome in order to identify dsyregulated miRNAs which target genes of the hepatic glucose and lipid metabolism. Total RNA extracted from liver biopsies of 20 non-diabetic and 20 type-2-dabetic obese human subjects, matched for age and gender, were used for microarray measurement in order to establish a database for the human small noncoding RNA expression pattern in metabolic diseases.