Analysis of B-cells and plasma cells in multiple myeloma
| Authors | |
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| Year of publication | 2012 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | Multiple myeloma (MM) is characterized by the presence of clonal plasma cells (PC) arising from malignant transformed B-cells. It is still not clear which stage of B-cell differentiation is responsible for the development of MM and for eventual relapse after treatment, so nowadays there is an effort to identify the source of myeloma-initiating cells. Aim: Analysis of the phenotypic profile and enumeration of B and PC subpopulations in MM patients. Patients and methods: Total of 38 newly diagnosed MM patients and 18 controls without MM were analysed. Results: There was found significantly lower % of the total CD19+ cells in MM than in control samples for both PB and BM (p <0.05). Numbers of transitional B-cells and naive B-cells were reduced in PB of MM when compared with controls (p <0.05). On the contrary, numbers of preGC, total memory and CD27- switched B-cells were increased in MM (p <0.05). No difference was found when compared % of plasmablasts in both groups. There were found similar results as reduction of naive B-cells and increase of total memory and CD27- switched B-cells in BM of MM (p <0.05). As expected, higher % of PC was found in MM mostly with abnormal phenotype CD19- (p <0.005). Conclusion: Polychromatic flow cytometry is capable to identify minimum of 10 B-cell and PC subpopulations. Reduction of CD19+ cells in MM should be mediated by an increased number of abnormal PCs. The enhancement of isotype-switched memory CD27+ and isotype-switched CD27- B-cell subpopulations in MM patients suggests that some of these could be a potential source of myeloma-initiating cells. Analysis on DNA level will be done. |
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