Abstract: Objective To investigate the expression profiles and chromosome distribution characteristics of miRNA in bone marrow samples between the patients with adult B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) and their controls. Methods Illumina sequencing technology was applied to perform global miRNA expression analysis and chromosome distribution analysis in the bone marrow samples of 15 adult B-ALL patients relative to a control group of 10 patients without hematologic malignancies. Then, qPCR was carried out to validate the reliability of the sequencing data. Results In total, 291 differentially expressed miRNAs including 168 up-regulated and 123 down-regulated miRNAs were indentified in adult B-ALL patients compared with their controls. Despite the distribution of miRNA genes in chromosome was similar in both samples, the distribution of miRNA expression abundance in chromosome show obvious differences. B-ALL group was mainly located in the chromosome 1, 2, 5 and 9, while the control group was mainly located in the chromosome 3, 7, 9, 17 and X. Conclusion The altered expression profile of miRNA in bone marrow samples of adult B-ALL patients implies that aberrantly expressed miRNAs maybe plays roles in the occurrence and development of B-ALL.

Key words: B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, microRNA, sequencing, expression profile