Fig. 2

miRNA expression in MDS patients. A miR-192-5p expression in BMMNCs obtained from MDS patients at baseline (T0), after 4 (T4) and 8 (T8) cycles of AZA + LEN therapy. Responder patients (R) show high levels of miR-192-5p, as compared to healthy subjects (HD), at T0, T4 and T8. During treatment, they showed a slight increase at T4 (vs T0), followed by a decrease at T8 (vs T4). Even patients losing response (LR) show high miR-192-5p levels at T0 and a reduction during therapy, while non-responder patients (NR) show the lowest level of miR-192-5p at T0 (although being higher than HD), a slight reduction at T4 and an increase at T8. B miR-21–5-p expression in MDS patients at baseline (T0), after 4 (T4) and 8 (T8) cycles of AZA + LEN therapy. All patients’ subgroups [responders (R), losing response (LR), and non-responders (NR)] show similar and constant levels of miR-21-5p, that are not statistically different from healthy subjects (HD) and are similar throughout the treatment. C miR-224-5p expression in MDS patients at baseline (T0), after 4 (T4) and 8 (T8) cycles of AZA + LEN therapy. All patients’ subgroups [responders (R), losing response (LR), and non-responders (NR)] show higher levels of miR-224-5p at T0, T4 and T8, as compared to healthy subjects (HD), although not reaching statistical significance. R and LR patients show a slight increase at T4 (vs T0) and a slight reduction at T8 (vs T4), while NR show a small decrease at both T4 and T8, as compared with T0. All data are represented as mean ± SD. Each experiment was repeated at least three times, with at least six replicates for each treatment condition and patients’ subgroup. *p < 0.05 versus HD, by one-way ANOVA using Bonferroni multiple comparisons in GraphPad Prism 5