12^th World Hematologists Congress

Under blood bank storage conditions platelets undergo physiological changes leading to storage lesions that affect platelet quality. Since small noncoding microRNAs (miRNAs) are posttranslational regulators of cellular mRNA expression, we envisioned that miRNA targeting of mRNAs cause perturbations in stored platelet processes and affect their quality. In this report, differential miRNA and mRNA microarray data on day 0, day 5 and day 9 stored human platelet samples were analyzed. The analysis identified 7 upregulated miRNAs (miR-320b, miR-1-3p, miR-214-3p, miR-197-3p, miR 129-5p, miR- 183-5p and miR-292b-5p) that are known to regulate 35 mRNAs. The analysis further identified 68 differentially expressed miRNAs common to day 5 and day 9 of storage (p-value < 0.05). Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) based search for mRNAs that are potentially regulated by these miRNAs identified 17 mRNAs involved in platelet activation, 28 mRNAs associated with platelet aggregation, 12 mRNAs affecting platelet binding and 9 mRNAs involved in adhesion as well as 27 mRNAs implicated in cellular apoptosis. The IPA also assisted in identifying top 5 signaling pathways and network functions of platelets in storage. The results clearly identify the potential of miRNAs in regulating platelet functions relevant to the storage lesions and provide a basis for further experimental verification.