Previous studies have shown that miR-21-5p plays a role in the pathogenesis of T2DM by influencing Nuclear Factor Kappa B Subunit 1 (NFKB1) and TP53-inducible glycolysis and apoptosis regulator (TIGAR) targets in visceral adipose tissue (Wróblewski et al., 2023), and in the development of retinopathy in T2DM by affecting Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPAR-α) and Growth factor-beta (TGF-β) signaling pathways (Chen et al., 2017; Lou et al., 2019). The gene discussed is TGFB1; the disease is type 2 diabetes mellitus.