AIM:To study the potential value and specificity of plasma miR-216a as a marker for pancreatic injury.METHODS:Two rat models were applied in this article:L-arginine-induced acute pancreatitis was used as one model to explore the potential value of plasma miR-216a for detection of pancreatic injury;nonlethal sepsis induced in rats by single puncture cecal ligation and puncture(CLP)was used as the other model to evaluate the specificity of plasma miR-216a compared with twocommonly used markers(amylase and lipase)for acute pancreatitis.Plasmas were sampled from rats at indicated time points and total RNA was isolated.Real-Time Quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction was used to quantify miR-216a in plasmas.RESULTS:In the acute pancreatitis model,among five time points at which plasmas were sampled,miR-216a concentrations were significantly elevated 24 h after arginine administration and remained significantly increased until 48 h after operation(compared with 0 h time point,P<0.01,Kruskal-Wallis Test).In the CLP model,plasma amylase and lipase,two commonly used biomarkers for acute pancreatitis,were significantly elevated 24 h after operation(compared with 0 h time point,P<0.01 and 0.05 respectively,Pairwise Bonferroni corrected ttests),while miR-216a remained undetectable among four tested time points.CONCLUSION:Our article showed for the first time that plasma miR-216a might serve as a candidate marker of pancreatic injury with novel specificity. AIM: To study the potential value and specificity of plasma miR-216a as a marker for pancreatic injury. METHODS: Two rat models were applied in this article: L-arginine-induced acute pancreatitis was used as one model to explore the potential value of plasma miR-216a for detection of pancreatic injury; nonlethal sepsis induced in rats by single puncture cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) was used as the other model to evaluate the specificity of plasma miR-216a compared with twocommonly used markers (amylase and lipase) for acute pancreatitis. Patients were sampled from rats at indicated time points and total RNA was isolated. Real-Time Quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction was used to quantify miR-216a in plasmas .RESULTS: In the acute pancreatitis model, among five time points at which plasmas were sampled, miR-216a concentrations were significantly elevated for 24 h after arginine administration and was significantly increased increased until after 48 h after operation (compared with 0 h time point, P <0.01, Kruskal-Wallis Test. In the CLP model, plasma amylase and lipase, two commonly used biomarkers for acute pancreatitis, were elevated elevated for 24 h after operation (compared with 0 h time point, P <0.01 and 0.05 respectively, Pairwise Bonferroni corrected ttests) while while miR-216a was undetectable among four tested time points. CONCLUSION: Our article showed for the first time that plasma miR-216a might serve as a candidate marker of pancreatic injury with novel specificity.