Altered expression profiles of microRNAs during TPA-induced differentiation of HL-60 cells

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are highly conserved small non-coding RNAs that regulate gene expression through translational repression by base-pairing with partially complementary mRNAs. The expression of a set of miRNAs is known to be regulated developmentally and spatially, and is involved in differentiation or cell proliferation in several organisms. However, the expression profiles of human miRNAs during cell differentiation remain largely unknown. In an effort to expand our knowledge of human miRNAs, we investigated miRNAs during 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA)-induced differentiation of human leukemia cells (HL-60) into monocyte/macrophage-like cells. Several hundred RNAs ranging from 18 to 26 nucleotides were isolated from HL-60 cells with or without TPA-induction, and subsequently characterized by sequencing, database searching, and expression profiling. By removing non-miRNA sequences, we found three novel and 38 known miRNAs expressed in HL-60 cells. These miRNAs could be further classified into subsets of miRNAs that responded differently following TPA induction, either being up-regulated or down-regulated, suggesting the importance of regulated gene expression via miRNAs in the differentiation of HL-60 cells.