[Relationships Between Expression level of MicroRNA-146a, STAT1 Protein and Clinical Characteristics in Children with...

To analyze the relationships between expression levels of serum microRNA-146a, STAT1 protein and clinical characteristics in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

A total of 102 children diagnosed as ALL in our hospital from June 2014 to June 2016 were enrolled, and were compared by into groups according to clinical characteristics including sex, age, lymphocyte type, disease risk, chemotherapy stage and gene mutation. Fifty healthy children were chosen as control group. The relative expression of microRNA-146a and STAT1 gene was detected by real-time RT-PCR and the relative level of STAT1 protein was detected by Western blot. The difference of microRNA-146a and STAT1 protein levels between clinical factors and laboratory indexs were compared. Followed-up for 3 years, The difference of overall survival (OS) rates between ALL children with different microRNA-146a and STAT1 protein were compared.

The levels of microRNA-146a, STAT1 mRNA and protein in ALL children were significantly higher than those in control group (P＜0.05), but there were no significantly differences in sex, age and lymphocyte type grouping in ALL children (P＞0.05). There were significantly differences in different disease risk, chemotherapy stage and gene mutation groups in ALL children (P＜0.05). Followed-up for 3 years, the OS rate of ALL children with high microRNA-146a and STAT1 protein levels were better than those with low microRNA-146a and STAT1 protein levels (P＜0.05).

The up-regulation of microRNA-146a and STAT1 protein may be involved in occurrence and development of ALL, which closely relates to clinical characteristics in ALL children, such as disease risk, chemotherapy stage and gene mutation.