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Elevated Levels of Circulating miR-92a Are Associated with Impaired Glucose Homeostasis in Patients with Obesity and Correlate with Metabolic Status After Bariatric Surgery

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Abstract

Introduction

miRNAs are small non-coding RNAs, some of which are expressed in adipose tissues, are present in the circulation, and are regulated in obesity. Bariatric surgery (BS) has been proposed to lead to activation of brown adipose tissue, an effect that may be related to beneficial effects of BS on systemic metabolism. Here, we evaluated circulating levels of miR-92a and miR-99b, two miRNAs proposed as biomarkers of brown fat activity, in a cohort of patients with severe obesity before and after BS, and studied their potential relationship with BS-associated improvements in metabolic parameters.

Methods

Circulating levels of miR-92a and miR-99b were quantified in a cohort of 26 patients (age, 48 ± 10 years; BMI, 45 ± 7 kg/m2) before and 6 months after BS. Clinical parameters were determined at different time points and correlations among them were studied.

Results

Basal levels of miR-92a were significantly increased in patients with obesity relative to lean controls. Serum miR-92a levels were strongly reduced at 6 months after BS, reaching levels similar to those in controls. Serum miR-99b levels were unchanged in relation to both the obese condition and BS. Elevated levels of miR-92a were directly correlated with worsened glucose homeostasis parameters and poor BS outcome.

Conclusions

Our findings show that miR-92a is elevated in conditions of obesity, and its reduction after BS correlates with metabolic improvement. Further studies would be necessary to establish miR-92a as serum biomarker and potential predictor of the BS success in improving the metabolic status of patients with obesity.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the IGTP High Content Genomics and Bioinformatics Core facility and staff (Lauro Sumoy, PhD, and Raquel Pluvinet, PhD) for their contribution to this publication.

Funding

DS-I is an Investigator of the Miguel Servet Fund from Carlos III National Institute of Health, Spain. This study was supported by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, by the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER), Madrid, Spain (FIS17/01455 and SAF2017-85722R), and by the K-sted 651010-Project number 70084900-analyze number M50676 from Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). DJP was supported by a grant from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation - MINECO (RYC-2014-16938).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biomedicine, Institute of Biomedicine, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

    Rubén Cereijo & Francesc Villarroya

  2. Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Fisiopatología de la Obesidad y la Nutrición (CIBEROBN), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

    Rubén Cereijo & Francesc Villarroya

  3. Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute, Campus Can Ruti, Carretera de Can Ruti, Camí de les Escoles s/n, Badalona, 08916, Barcelona, Spain

    Siri D. Taxerås, Irene Piquer-Garcia, Silvia Pellitero, Eva Martínez, Jordi Tarascó, Pau Moreno, Manel Puig-Domingo & David Sánchez-Infantes

  4. Biomedical Research Center (Red Fisiopatología de la Diabetes y enfermedades metabólicas) (CIBERDEM), ISCIII, Madrid, Spain

    Silvia Pellitero & Manel Puig-Domingo

  5. Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Unit, EAC-BS Center of Excellence, Vall d’Hebron University Hospital, Barcelona, Spain

    José Balibrea

  6. MOVE-IT Research group and Department of Physical Education, Faculty of Education Sciences, University of Cádiz, Cádiz, Spain

    David Jiménez-Pavón

  7. Institute of Research and Innovation in Biomedical Sciences of the Province of Cádiz (INiBICA), University of Cádiz, Cádiz, Spain

    David Jiménez-Pavón

  8. Institut de Recerca Sant Joan de Déu, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

    Carles Lerin & Francesc Villarroya

Authors
  1. Rubén Cereijo
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  2. Siri D. Taxerås
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  3. Irene Piquer-Garcia
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  7. Pau Moreno
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  8. José Balibrea
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  9. Manel Puig-Domingo
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  10. David Jiménez-Pavón
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  11. Carles Lerin
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  12. Francesc Villarroya
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  13. David Sánchez-Infantes
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Francesc Villarroya or David Sánchez-Infantes.

Ethics declarations

Samples from patients included in this study were provided by the IGTP HUGTP Biobank and the “Biobanc de l’Hospital Infantil Sant Joan de Déu per a la Investigació,” both integrated in the Spanish National Biobanks Network of Instituto de Salud Carlos III (PT13/0010/0009) and they were processed following standard operating procedures with the appropriate approval of the Ethical and Scientific Committees.

Conflict of Interest

Francesc Villarroya reports grants from Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovació y Universidades, outside the submitted work. The other authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Cereijo, R., Taxerås, S.D., Piquer-Garcia, I. et al. Elevated Levels of Circulating miR-92a Are Associated with Impaired Glucose Homeostasis in Patients with Obesity and Correlate with Metabolic Status After Bariatric Surgery. OBES SURG 30, 174–179 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11695-019-04104-y

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