INS and type 2 diabetes mellitus: In the T2DM group, the expression level of free plasma miR-147b was moderately positively correlated with glucose concentration (r = 0.34; P < 0.001) and a low level with HbA1C (r = 0.23; P = 0.02), microalbuminuria (r = 0.29; P = 0.003), negatively correlated with C-peptide (r = -0.21; P = 0.03) and HOMA-β (r = -0.35; P < 0.001), but not correlated with insulin, blood lipids, HOMA-IR, HOMA-S, (P > 0.05) (Table 4).