[Molecular mechanism of oncogenesis and progression in human myeloma]

Abstract

Cellular biology of primary myeloma cells from myeloma patients, has been rapidly developing by using DNA analysis, gene expression profiling (GEP) and surface marker analysis. These studies reveal that human myeloma cells specifically lose the expression of B cell master gene, PAX-5, and express multi-lineage markers, and XBP-1 transgenic mice showed the late onset of human myeloma-like monoclonal plasmacytosis in the bone marrow of aged mice. GEP reveals that primary myeloma cells are subdivided into 7 groups: among these subgroups, PR (proliferation) group predicts poor prognosis. With regard to molecular mechanism of myeloma oncogenesis, the importance of primary IgH translocation followed by the second IgH translocation is proposed, but it is also noted that human myeloma cells show the marked heterogeneity.