The impairment or loss of islet cell function is the direct cause of diabetes, and lncRNAs play an important role in regulating insulin-secreting β islet cells (Table 1) (Marrero et al., 2005; Hammes et al., 2011; Fadista et al., 2014; Hu et al., 2014; Li et al., 2014; You et al., 2015). The gene discussed is INS; the disease is diabetes mellitus.