Up-regulation of MicroRNA 146b is Associated with Myelofibrosis in Myeloproliferative Neoplasma

Abstract

In this study, our goal was to evaluate whether the expressions of microRNA (miR)-150, miR- 146b, miR-31 and miR-95 demonstrate primary myelofibrosis (PMF) specificity, associations with fibrosis grade, hematologic phenotypes, or myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPN)-associated mutations. A total of 51 formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded bone marrow MPN samples, including 15 polycythemia vera (PV), 26 essential thrombocythemia (ET), and 10 PMF, and 24 normal controls were included. The expression of microRNA (miRNA) was detected by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction using miRNA specific primers. RNU6-2 was analyzed for all samples as endogenous control for relative quantification. Information for fibrosis, hematologic parameters, Janus kinase 2 (JAK2) V617F, and calreticulin (CALR) mutations was obtained from medical records. Significant increment of miR-146b was detected in PMF compared to normal controls (P=0.008). Moreover, expression of miR-146b tended to increase according to increment of fibrosis grade, and patients with myelofibrosis (MF) grade 3 showed significantly higher expression than patients with MF 0 to 2 (P=0.022, 0.001 and 0.013, respectively) or normal controls (P<0.001). The expression of miR-31 also showed tendency to increase following fibrosis and miR-150 showed up-regulated expression in ET (P=0.015) compared to normal control. There was no relationship between miRNA expression and hematologic indices except miR-95 showed negative correlation with platelet count (P=0.024). There was no significant correlation between miRNA expression and JAK2 V617F or CALR mutation. Up-regulation of miR-146b could be used as a fibrosis-indicating marker and might be helpful in the study of fibrotic mechanism in MPN, as well as other fibrotic diseases. Key words: microRNAs, miR-146b, primary myelofibrosis, myeloproliferative neoplasm