BACKGROUND: Despite the acknowledgement that LncRNA LINC-PINT may inhibit tumor cell invasion in human cancers, it is not yet determined when it comes to diabetes and its related complications.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: There were 244 patients with T2D and 126 healthy volunteers were admitted to People’s Hospital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Hospital. Fasting blood (5 mL) was obtained from the patients and controls a day after admission. The diabetes patients’ fasting blood was extracted once every 6 months during follow-up. The total RNA was extracted and then used for detecting the expression of LINC-PINT.

RESULTS: A comparison was made in this study, where LINC-PINT did not experience significant downregulation level in the majority of those suffering diabetes complications when in contrast to healthy controls, while LINC-PINT expression was found in diabetics. The follow-up study showed that LINC-PINT was downregulated in patients who developed cardiomyopathy and retinopathy or both but not in patients who developed other complications. Treatment with high glucose limited the extent of LINC-PINT expression in the ARPE-19 and AC16 cells. While the overexpression of LINC-PINT increased the viability of ARPE-19 and AC16 cells, siRNA-mediated silencing of LINC-PINT elicited the opposite effect.

CONCLUSIONS: Hence, we concluded that the overexpression of LINC-PINT may exhibit inhibitory effects on the progression of cardiomyopathy and retinopathy among patients with type 2 diabetes.

Keywords: Diabetes Complications, Diabetic Neuropathies, Tissue Survival, Cardiomyopathies, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Diabetic Retinopathy, Down-Regulation, Follow-Up Studies, RNA, Small Interfering