Objective To analyze levels of microRNA-34a(miR-34a)and hypoxic inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α)in patients with type 2 diabetes(T2DM) with different urinary albumin excretion rates (AER) and their significance.

Methods A total of 90 patients with T2DM were selected as T2DM group. At the same time, 90 healthy adults who underwent physical examinations in outpatient department during the same period were included in control group. According to different urinary AER, the patients in the T2DM group were divided into normal group, micro-amount group and large amount group, with 30 cases in each group. Serum HIF-1α level was detected by double antibody sandwich Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay and the expression level of miR-34a in serum was detected by real-time fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Blood glucose, serum HIF-1α, serum miR-34a level and AER level of each group were compared, and the correlations of AER level with serum miR-34a level and serum HIF-1α level in T2DM patients were analyzed, and the relationship between miR-34a and HIF-1α was analyzed. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was plotted, and the area under the curve (AUC) was calculated to evaluate the predictive value of HIF-1α and miR-34a for T2DM.

Results Compared with the healthy group, the urinary albumin levels of the normal group, the micro-amount group and the large amount group were significantly higher, and their levels in the micro-amount group were higher than those of the normal group, and were higher in the large amount group than the micro-amount group(P < 0.05). Correlation analysis showed that AER level in T2DM patients was positively correlated with serum HIF-1α level and serum miR-34a level (r=0.75, 0.73, P < 0.05), and serum HIF-1α level was positively correlated with serum miR-34a level (r=0.55, P < 0.05). ROC curve showed that HIF-1α and miR-34a had high predictive value for T2DM, with AUC values of 0.991 and 0.934, respectively.

Conclusion The higher the urinary albumin level in patients with T2D is, the more serious the disease will be. Serum HIF-1α level is positively correlated with serum miR-34a level, suggesting that miR-34a and HIF-1α are the influencing factors of T2DM disease and have high predictive value for T2DM.