• Assessment of expression levels of hsa-miR-155-5p and SOCS-1 in NK cells isolated from refractory/relapsed or responsive patients with large diffuse B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and healthy donors
  • Nasrin Zare,1 Shaghayegh Haghjooy Javanmard,2 Valiollah Mehrzad,3 Nahid Eskandari,4,*
    1. Department of Immunology, School of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences
    2. Department of Physiology, School of Medicine and Applied Physiology Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences
    3. department of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences
    4. Department of Immunology, School of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences


  • Introduction: The most common high-grade form of non-hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) is diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Since hsa-miR-155-5p is critical for the homeostasis of NK cells, we evaluated whether the hsa-miR-155-5p level and its target mRNA (SOCS-1) is different in the NK cells from patients with DLBCL in comparison with healthy donors.
  • Methods: This experiment was a cross-sectional study. Patients were consecutively selected from Seyed-al-Shohada Hospital in Isfahan, Iran. Peripheral blood were obtained from healthy people (n=12) and responsive patients with DLBCL (n=10) or refractory/relapsed patients with DLBCL (n=12). The mean age of the patients was 43.15 ± 11.76 years (mean +/- SD). Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were separated on a Ficoll-Hypaque gradient. NK cells were purified using NK cell isolation kit (Miltenyi Biotec, Bergisch Gladbach, Germany) according to the manufacturer’s protocol. Total RNA was extracted from NK cells, reverse transcribed and analyzed by qRT-PCR. Changes in the expression levels of hsa-miR-155-5p and SOCS-1 were simultaneously measured in NK cells from patients with DLBCL in comparison with healthy donors.
  • Results: An expression level of hsa-miR-155-5p in healthy donors was more than patients with DLBCL (P=0.005, ANOVA). As well, there was a significant decrease in the expression level of SOCS-1 in healthy donors relative to responsive patients with DLBCL (P=0.0001 LSD Post-Hoc).
  • Conclusion: Increased expression of hsa-miR-155-5p could effect on proliferation and activation of NK cells. The decreased expression of hsa-miR-155-5p might be associated with low NK cell function and impaired response to treatment in patients with DLBCL. Therefore, it is necessary to further evaluate the miR-155-5p-SOCS-1 pathway.
  • Keywords: DLBCL, hsa-miR-155-5p, NK cell, SOCS-1