Expression analysis of miR-125a-3p and miR-125a-5p in patients with myeloproliferative neoplasm

Deregulation of microRNA (miRNA) expression can lead to cancer initiation and progression. The aim of this study was to investigate miR-125a expression level in patients with myeloproliferative neoplasm and its correlation with JAK2 allele burden and laboratory findings.
This is an experimental study. In total, 20 patients with Polycythemia Vera (PV) and 20 patients with essential thrombocythemia(ET) were examined. Ten healthy subjects were checked as controls. We performed JAK2 V617F allele burdens measurement by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Expression analysis of miR‑125a-3p and miR-125a-5p was performed by Real-time RT-PCR. Results were analyzed by SPSS 16 software and Mann–Whitney test and Spearman’s correlation was applied for analysis.
miR-125a-5p was up regulated in both PV (p = 0.003) and ET patients (p = 0.002). In PV group, a significant correlation was observed between miR-125a-5p and platelet counts (p = 0.01, r = 0.531). The median allele burden of the JAK2 V617F was 66% (62.37 ± 18.29) for patients with PV and 40% (43.4 ± 13.95) for patients with ET (p = 0.007).
In conclusion, our data indicate that there is the aberrant expression of miRNAs such as miR-125a in MPNs patients except JAK2 mutation.