Roles of Identified Long Noncoding RNA in Diabetic Nephropathy

Diabetes mellitus is the leading chronic disease in the world, and diabetic nephropathy (DN) as one of its complications could increase the mortality. The development of DN is associated to abnormal hemodynamic factors like cytokine networks and the intervention of metabolic risk factors like blood pressure, blood glucose, and blood lipid. However, the pathogenesis of DN is still poorly understood. Although glucose-lowering drugs and insulins have significant effects on blood glucose, the fluctuation of blood glucose or other risk factors could continuously damage the kidney. Recent studies reported that the progression of DN is closely related to the expression of long noncoding RNA (lncRNA), which is important for the early diagnosis and targeted intervention of DN. In this review, we briefly summarize the published studies on the functions and potential mechanism of reported lncRNA in the regulation of DN.