Expression and Clinical Significance of circRNA Changes in Stored Erythrocytes During Platelet Transfusion in Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.

BACKGROUND

This study was to store the expression and clinical significance of circRNA changes in red blood cells during platelet transfusion in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

METHODS

Sixty patients with ALL who underwent platelet transfusion were enrolled. Post-transfusion symptoms, platelet count (PLT), 24-hour corrected platelet increase index (CCI), and 24-hour platelet recovery rate (PPR) were collected, and their correlation with age, gender, bleeding, infection, splenomegaly, antibiotic use and infusion times were analyzed. High-throughput sequencing was used to detect the expression levels of circRNAs in suspended red blood cells of the blood samples. Then, the circRNA expression profiles were constructed, the differentially expressed circRNAs were screened, and the circRNAs related to platelet transfusion in AML were mined.

RESULTS

PLT values of 60 ALL patients after platelet transfusion were significantly increased. Thirty-five patients were effective and 25 were ineffective after platelet transfusion, and the total effective rate was 58.33%. Patients with hemorrhage and splenomegaly, or antibiotic use, or increased blood transfusion frequency will show reduced efficacy of platelet transfusion. A total of 2,358 circRNAs were obtained from all samples, most of which were distributed in 200 - 3,000 nt. circRNAs can be divided into exonic circRNAs (58.74%), sense overlapping circRNAs (21.76%), intronic circRNAs (17.60%), antisense circRNAs (0.93%), and intergenic circRNAs (0.98%). A total of 257 differentially expressed circRNAs were obtained by volcano plot analysis, of which 126 were up-regulated and 131 were down-regulated. Differentially up-regulated and down-regulated circRNAs were mainly enriched in dif-ferent cellular processes.

CONCLUSIONS

ALL is improved after platelet transfusion. By constructing circRNA expression profiles and screening differentially expressed circRNAs, 257 circRNAs that may be related to ALL platelet transfusion were mined.