MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short (19–22 nucleotides), evolutionarily conserved, non-coding RNA molecules, involved in gene regulatory functions. MiRNAs operate through a mechanism involving complementary sequence binding (of a seed region) to the 3′ UTR region of a target mRNA molecule. Formation of the miRNA:mRNA complex results in either increased degradation of the target mRNA molecule [6], or alternatively, inhibition of target mRNA translation [7], [8], [9]. Through these mechanisms, miRNAs have been predicted to affect the regulation of up to 30% of protein coding genes in mammals [8] and are consequently involved in regulating a broad set of cellular processes [10], [11]. Several examples of miRNA-mediated regulation in mammalian adipose tissue have been reported so far, including miRNA involvement in adipocyte differentiation [12], [13] and adipogenesis [14], [15]. Furthermore, the expression levels of several miRNAs have previously been reported to be associated with obesity, metabolic syndrome and T2D [16], [17], [18], [19]. The influence of genetic variants on miRNA expression has recently been reported in a study of miRNA expression in human fibroblasts [20], where 12 cis miRNA eQTLs were reported
