Sources of variability in the human platelet transcriptome.

Platelets are anucleated cells produced by megakaryocytes, from which they inherit all the components necessary to carry their functions. They circulate in blood vessels where they play essential roles in coagulation, wound repair or inflammation, and have been implicated in various pathological conditions such as thrombosis, viral infection or cancer progression. The importance of these cells has been established over a century ago, and effective anti-platelet medications with different mechanisms of action have since been developed. However, these therapies are not always effective and can incur adverse events, thus a better understanding of platelets molecular processes is needed to address these issues and improve our understanding of platelet functions. In recent years, an increasing number of studies have leveraged OMICs technologies to analyze their content and identify molecular signatures and mechanisms associated with platelet functions and platelet related disorders. In particular, the increased accessibility of microarrays and RNA sequencing opened the way for studies of the platelet transcriptome under a wide array of conditions. These studies revealed distinct expression profiles in diverse pathologies, which could lead to the discovery of novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets, and suggests a dynamic transcriptome that could influence platelet mechanisms. In this review, we highlight the different sources of transcript level variability in platelets while summarizing recent advances and discoveries from this emerging field.