Recent advances of micro RNA in neovascularization formation of diabetic retinopathy

MicroRNA (miRNA) is a kind of endogenous and highly conservative RNA, with length of about 20 to 24 nucleotides and tissue specificity.MiRNA regulates the expression of target genes by pairing with complementary mRNA in the transcription level mRNA or inhibiting mRNA translation.Several studies have shown the miRNA subtype genes, such as miR-126, miR-31, miR-200b and miR-29, in a certain related to the formation of new blood vessels in diabetic retinopathy (DR), through a series of regulation of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression, thereby inhibiting or promoting angiogenesis.VEGF can stimulate vascular endothelial cell hyperplasia and generate new blood vessels, which damage blood-retinal barrier and accelerate the progress of DR.Therefore, revealing the effect and mechanism of miRNA on the pathogenesis of DR, new blood vessels are the important research direction, which can offer us new strategy for prevention and cure of DR.In this article, we reviewed the research progress of miRNA in neovascularization formation of DR.