CASP3 and autoimmune thrombocytopenic purpura: In accordance with the concentration of IL-16 in the bone marrow supernatants, the pro-IL-16 mRNA expression of BMMCs in patients with active ITP was significantly up-regulated compared with that of healthy controls (1.317 ± 0.3074 (n = 14) vs. 0.1182 ± 0.7577 (n = 9), P = 0.0012); caspase-3 mRNA were significantly higher in ITP patients compared with that in healthy controls (0.1194 ± 0.0797 (n = 14) vs. 0.006919 ± 0.001468 (n = 9), P = 0.0298) (Figure 2A).