Background: Platelet transfusion is an essential part of the treatment of a variety of conditions such as thrombocytopenia and qualitative platelet disorders. As indicated in previous reports, during in vitro storage, platelets undergo morphological and physiological changes collectively known as the platelet storage lesion. Apoptosis is a programmed process of cell death, which has been considered as an important cause of platelet storage lesion under the common storage conditions in standard blood banks. Platelets are anucleate blood cells, but contain significant amounts of microRNA (miRNA, miR), which may play an important role in the regulation of gene expression. Drawing on previously published reports on cell apoptosis, we selected 49 miRNA for analysis to explore whether miRNA are of importance during the storage of platelets.
Materials and methods: We used quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis to determine the levels of expression of miRNA in apheresis platelets at different times of storage. Bioinformatics analysis was applied to explore target genes and the main functions of the selected miRNA.
Results: Our observations suggest that apheresis platelets contain large amounts of apoptosis-associated miRNA. The levels of expression of 25 miRNA remained high and ten of these miRNA showed different expression from that at day 0. Of these ten miRNA, hsa-miR-326, hsa-miR-96, hsa-miR-16, hsa-miR-155 and hsa-miR-150 were up-regulated, while hsa-miR-7, hsa-miR-145, hsa-miR-24, hsa-miR-25 and hsa-miR-15a were down-regulated. The markedly increased expression of hsa-miR-326 in all platelets is noteworthy (p<0.001).
Discussion: Since Bcl-xl and Bak1, members of the Bcl-2 family, are the targets of hsa-miR-326, our findings suggest that hsa-miR-326 may be involved in platelet apoptosis during storage.