LincRNA-p21 sponges miR-18b to promote the progression of diabetic nephropathy.

Little is known about the role of lincRNA-p21 in the development of diabetic nephropathy. The aim of the present study was to investigate the level of lincRNA-p21 in diabetic nephropathy, and explore its underlying mechanism. The current study revealed that down-regulation of lincRNA-p21 could alleviate pathological changes of diabetic nephropathy in mice. LincRNA-p21 expression was significantly up-regulated in MMCs under high glucose condition in vitro. Besides, lincRNA-p21 promoted the proliferation of MMCs, which was reversed by miR-18b targeted with 3'-UTR. Moreover, miR-18b suppressed the expression of connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) by binding with the 3'-UTR. Furthermore, down-regulation of lincRNA-p21 expression alleviated extracellular matrix under high glucose, which could be reversed by miR-18b inhibitor significantly. In short, our study suggests lincRNA-p21 plays as an important role in progression of diabetic nephropathy in an animal model through interaction with miR-18b, providing a novel insight for the pathogenesis and an underlying therapeutic target for diabetic nephropathy.