Abstract: Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is one of the most common complications of diabetes mellitus with a complex pathological process that often involves the entire renal structure. Circular RNAs are non-coding RNAs with a covalently closed loop structure, which play a role in various physiological and pathological processes. During DKD, circular RNAs are involved in renal cell injury by participating in the regulation of cell cycle, cell differentiation and death, and regulating processes such as inflammatory factor release and stromal fibronectin expression. In this paper, we introduce the structure and function of circular RNAs and review the recent research progress of circular RNAs in DKD from the perspective of renal cell injury.

Key words: diabetic nephropathies, circular RNA, biomarkers, therapeutic target