en Genetics & Disease Genetics & Disease Review Review <p style="text-align: justify;">Although deregulation of miR-146a has been reported in type 2 diabetes repeatedly, the direction of deregulation events (up or down) remained to be inconsistent in literatures.&nbsp; Therefore, in this study, we performed a meta-analysis on the possible association between miR-146a expression levels and type 2 diabetes. A systematic literature searching of PubMed, ISI Web of Science and Google Scholar was performed up to the end of September 2016. Finally, a total of 12 studies including 344 diabetic patients and 316 controls were selected for meta-analysis. All statistical analysis was performed using the meta for package with R software. Moreover, publication bias was assessed by Egger&rsquo;s and sensitivity analysis was applied on the meta-analysis. The results are presented as log10 odds ratios (logORs), 95% confidence intervals (CI) with relevant P values. The results revealed that miR-146a was downregulated in type 2 diabetes cases compared with normal subjects (P=0.01, logOR:-4.76, 95% CI:-8.41, -1.11). Furthermore, sub-group analysis showed that the association between miR-146a expression levels and type 2 diabetes in whole blood (P<0.001) and PBMCs (P<0.001) samples were significant. However, this association was not significant in the serum (P=0.67) and plasma (P=0.90) samples. Our finding suggests that miR-146a downregulation could be associated with type 2 diabetes susceptibility. Further investigations with larger sample size are required to evaluate this association in the type 2 diabetes pathogenesis.<br> &nbsp;</p> Type 2 diabetes, microRNA-146a, meta-analysis 156 163 http://ijmcmed.org/browse.php?a_code=A-10-1151-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Behnam Alipoor behnaalipoor@gmail.com 100319475328460010556 100319475328460010556 No Department of Laboratory Sciences, Faculty of Paramedicine, Yasuj University of Medical Sciences, Yasuj, Iran. Hamid Ghaedi qaedi.65@gmail.com 100319475328460010557 100319475328460010557 No Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Reza Meshkani rmeshkani@tums.ac.ir 100319475328460010558 100319475328460010558 No Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Shahram Torkamandi shahram.torkamandi@gmail.com 100319475328460010559 100319475328460010559 No Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Sana Saffari sanasaffari@gmail.com 100319475328460010560 100319475328460010560 No Department of Biology, Tehran North Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran. Mostafa Iranpour m.iranpour@sbmu.ac.ir 100319475328460010561 100319475328460010561 No Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Mir Davood Omrani davood_omrani@yahoo.co.uk 100319475328460010562 100319475328460010562 Yes Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.