Abstract:Objective To determine the changes of microRNA (miRNA) expression profile in plasma of diabetes rats after tea polyphenols treatment, and the potential relationship between microRNA (miRNA) expression profile and osteoporosis induced by diabetes . Method Sprague Dawley rats were randomly divided into: control group (Con), diabetes (DOP) model group, diabetes model low-dose (4.8 g/kg) tea polyphenols (DOP+L), middle dose (9.6 g/kg) of tea polyphenols (DOP+M) in diabetes model, high dose (14.4 g/kg) tea polyphenols (DOP+H) in diabetes model. After 12 weeks of oral administration, the bone density of the 5th lumbar vertebrae in each group of rats was measured by a bone density meter, and the microstructure of the tibia was observed by Micro CT scanning. the expression profile of microRNA in the plasma of rats in each group through high-throughput sequencing method and conduct bioinformatics analysis. Results Compared with the DOP group, the number of bone trabeculae in the upper tibial segment of rats in the treatment group was increased, the bone microstructure was significantly improved, and the bone mineral density of rats in the DOP+L and DOP+H groups was significantly increased (P<0.05). There were 252 differentially expressed microRNA in DOP and Con group (113 up-regulated and 139 downregulated), 344 microRNAs in DOP and DOP+L group (213 up-regulated and 131 down-regulated), 350 microRNAs in DOP and DOP+M group (219 up-regulated and 131 down-regulated), 323 microRNAs in DOP and DOP+H groups (209 up-regulated and 114 down-regulated). Compared with the Con group, the expression of miR-382-3p was significantly decreased in the DOP group, while the expression of miR-96-5p and miR-21 was significantly increased. Compared with the DOP group, the expression of miR-382-3p was significantly increased in all treatment groups, while miR-96-5p and miR-21 were significantly decreased (P<0.01 or 0.05). Conclusion Tea polyphenols can effectively improve the abnormal bone metabolism in diabetic rats. The underlying molecular mechanism may be related to improving the expression sequence of microRNA.