Background: Immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) is an autoimmune hemorrhagic disease with distinct clinical manifestations such as extensive skin petechiae, mucosal bleeding, and even visceral hemorrhage. In this study, CD3+T lymphocytes from ITP patients were screened for differentially expressed genes. The expression of miR-21 and miR-155 in T lymphocytes of ITP patients were investigated. The downstream target genes of miR-21 and miR-155 were also searched for the correlation between differentially expressed genes of ITP.
Methods: Differential gene screening was performed using the GSE43177 data set in the GEO database, and the expression of miR-21 and miR-155 in T lymphocytes of ITP patients was verified by qPCR. The interaction network of core downstream target genes and ITP differentially expressed genes of miR-21 and miR-155 were constructed with the STRING database, and the associated factors were verified by qPCR.
Results: In ITP patients, the expression of CD8+T lymphocytes increased, the expression of CD4+T lymphocytes decreased, and the ratio of CD4+/CD8+T cells decreased. Fourteen genes were differentially expressed in CD3+T lymphocytes, all of which were upregulated, and the expression of S100A8 was increased in ITP patients. The expression of miR-21-5p and miR-155-5p increased in CD3+T lymphocytes of initial ITP patients. The core down-stream target gene VCL of miR-21 was associated with the differentially expressed genes such as LTF, LCN2, and DEFA4 in the interaction network. VCL expression was decreased and LTF expression was increased in ITP patients.
Conclusions: S100A8 plays an important role in the regulation of CD3+T lymphocytes in ITP patients. MiR-21-5p regulates the differentially expressed gene LTF by inhibiting the core downstream target gene VCL and participates in the immune mechanism of T lymphocytes in ITP patients. MiR-155-5p is also involved in the immunoregulatory mechanism of T lymphocytes in ITP patients.