Plasma miR-200c-3p, miR-100-5p, and miR-1826 serve as potential diagnostic biomarkers for knee osteoarthritis: Randomized controlled trials.

Objective: To study the potential diagnostic value of plasma miR-200c-3p, miR-100-5p, and miR-1826 levels in knee osteoarthritis (KOA).

Methods: Real-time quantitative PCR (RT-PCR) was used to measure the expression levels of serum miR-200c-3p, miR-100-5p, and miR-1826 in 150 KOA patients and 150 control controls. In addition, the levels of DNMT3A, ZEB1, MMP13, and CTNNB1 mRNAs in the synovial fluid were also measured by RT-PCR.

Results: The expression levels of miR-100-5p, miR-200c-3p, and miR-1826 in the synovial fluid of 150 KOA patients were significantly lower than those in 54 controls (P < .001). In the synovial fluid, the miR-100-5p and DNMT3A mRNA levels, miR-100-5p and ZEB1 mRNA levels, miR-200c-3p and MMP13 mRNA levels, and miR-1826 and CTNNB1 mRNA levels were all negatively correlated (r = -0.83, -0.81, -0.83, -0.58, respectively). The AUCs of the diagnosis for KOA using the plasma levels of miR-200c-3p, miR-100-5p, and miR-1826 were 0.755, 0.845, and 0.749, respectively.

Conclusions: The plasma levels of miR-200c-3p, miR-100-5p, and miR-1826 are of potentially high value in the diagnosis of KOA.