involvement of microrna in t-cell differentiation and malignancy.

micrornas are 19-22 nucleotide rnas involved in such important processes as development, proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis. different mirnas are uniquely expressed in lymphoid t cells, and play a role indevelopment and differentiation of various subtypes by targeting their target genes. recent studies have shown that aberrant mirna expression may be involved in t cell leukemogenesis and lymphogenesis, and may function as tumor suppressor (such as mir-451, mir-31, mir-150, and mir-29a) or oncogene (e.g. mir-222, mir-223, mir-17-92, mir-155). mirnas can be used as new biomarkers for prognosis and diagnosis or as an index of disease severity in t-cell leukemia and lymphoma. this article presents a review of studies in recent years on the role of mirnas in t-cell development and their aberrant expression in pathogenesis of t-cell leukemia and lymphoma. characterizing mirnas can help recognize their role as new important molecules with prognostic and therapeutic applications.