Abnormal miR-214/A20 expression might play a role in T cell activation in patients with aplastic anemia

Aberrant T cell activation is a major cause of aplastic anemia(AA)pathogenesis.Recent studies have shown that miRNAs regulate T cell activation and are involved in AA.A previous study found that miR-214 was significantly up-regulated upon T cell activation in a CD28-dependent fashion by targeting PTEN.However,the expression characteristics of miR-214 and its target genes in AA have not been defined.In this study,target genes for miR-214 were predicted and confirmed by bioinformatics and luciferase reporter assays.The expression levels of miR-214 and target genes were detected in 36 healthy individuals and 35 patients with AA in peripheral blood mononuclear cells by real-time quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction.Bioinformatics and luciferase reporter assays identified that miR-214 could bind to the A2030 untranslated regions.Significantly increased miR-214 and the decreased A20 expression level were detected in the AA patients compared with the healthy group.In addition,significantly increased miR-214 was found in non-severe aplastic anemia compared with severe aplastic anemia patients.These results suggested that the A20 gene was a potential target of miR-214,and elevated miR-214 might medicate T cell activation at least in part by regulating A20 expression in AA.We firstly confirmed that miR-214 regulated A20 expression,and aberrant miR-214/A20 expression might contribute to immunopathology in AA.The miR-214 expression might be used as a potential biomarker that assisted in diagnosing AA severity.