Journal of Scientific Research and Reports
MicroRNA-155 as a Molecular Indicator of Diabetic Foot Ulcers
By Siham Jasim Al-kaabi.
Abstract
Background
Diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) are characterised by an imbalanced wound microenvironment, in which the molecular processes that regulate the inflammation-to-tissue-repair transition are impaired. MicroRNA-155 (miR-155) is a known immuno-inflammatory regulator whose expression is context-specific and has not been fully described in paired systemic and local tissue compartments in the diabetic context.
Aims
To measure the level of miR-155 in the whole blood of diabetic patients with DFUs and in matched ulcer-tissue biopsies by reverse-transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR); to compare miR-155 levels in whole blood and ulcer-tissue biopsies of diabetic patients with healthy controls; and to determine the relative differences between the systemic and localised levels. Study Design: A comparative cross-sectional molecular study. Place and Duration of Study: [Alhakem hospital l/Najaf], Najaf, Iraq, between April 2025 and November 2025. Methodology: Eighteen participants were recruited: nine patients with DFUs, each contributing a whole-blood sample and a matched ulcer-margin tissue biopsy, and nine healthy controls contributing whole-blood samples, yielding 27 biological specimens in total. TRIzol reagent was used to extract total RNA. RT-qPCR using SYBR Green, stem-loop reverse transcription, and U6 snRNA as the endogenous control was used to measure miR-155. The 2−ΔΔCt method was used to calculate relative expression. One-way ANOVA was used for group comparisons, followed by post-hoc testing; p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.