Kuno Suhaibee, Penglong Tipparat, Srinoun Kanitta
Department of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Prince of Songkla University , Songkhla , Thailand.
Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Prince of Songkla University, Songkla, Thailand.
Hemoglobin. 2019 May;43(3):155-161. doi: 10.1080/03630269.2019.1628043. Epub 2019 Aug 4.
β-Thalassemia (β-thal), is an inherited blood disorder caused by reduced or absent synthesis of β-globin chains leading to imbalance of globin chain synthesis. The clearance of β-thalassemic abnormal red blood cells (RBCs) that result from excessive unbound α-globin is mainly achieved by activated monocytes. The phagocytic activity of β-thal monocytes significantly increases when co-cultured with normal and β-thal RBC individuals compare to that of normal monocytes co-cultured with normal RBCs. The present study indicates that microRNA (miR) plays a role in monocyte activation. In this study, we identified the higher miR-125b expression in CD14 marker-positive monocytic cells of β-thal patients. Moreover, miR-125b expression levels positively correlate with the phagocytic activity of monocytes. Remarkably, miR-125b expression levels are negatively correlated with RBC count, hemoglobin (Hb) and hematocrit [or packed cell volume (PCV)], which are the indices for the severity of anemia. From these findings, our future studies will be to prove the hypothesis that miR-125b expression in activated monocytes may be a genetic modifier related to the severity of anemia in β-thal patients.
β地中海贫血（β-thal）是一种遗传性血液疾病，由β珠蛋白链合成减少或缺失导致珠蛋白链合成失衡引起。因过量游离α珠蛋白导致的β地中海贫血异常红细胞（RBC）的清除主要通过活化的单核细胞来实现。与正常单核细胞与正常RBC共培养相比，β地中海贫血单核细胞与正常和β地中海贫血RBC个体共培养时，其吞噬活性显著增加。本研究表明，微小RNA（miR）在单核细胞活化中起作用。在本研究中，我们发现β地中海贫血患者CD14标记阳性单核细胞中miR-125b表达较高。此外，miR-125b表达水平与单核细胞的吞噬活性呈正相关。值得注意的是，miR-125b表达水平与RBC计数、血红蛋白（Hb）和血细胞比容[或红细胞压积（PCV）]呈负相关，这些都是贫血严重程度的指标。基于这些发现，我们未来的研究将致力于证明这一假设，即活化单核细胞中的miR-125b表达可能是与β地中海贫血患者贫血严重程度相关的遗传修饰因子。
