CD138 (also termed SDC1) has been the gold-standard surface marker to

CD138 (also termed SDC1) has been the gold-standard surface marker to detect multiple myeloma (MM) cells for decades; however, drug-resistant residual and circulating MM cells were shown to have lower expression of this marker. bone marrow and peripheral blood of MM patients. Further investigation to characterize the role of this population as a prognostic marker in MM is warranted. 2003, Ludwig 2005). Elucidating the molecular mechanisms 181785-84-2 manufacture of cell signalling pathways in MM cells and their interaction with the bone marrow (BM) microenvironment Rabbit Polyclonal to CCBP2 has led to the development of novel therapies (de la Puente and Azab 2013, Nair, 2012). The survival of MM patients has improved significantly in the past decade due to the introduction of these novel therapies, including immunomodulatory drugs and proteasome inhibitors (Kumar, 2008, Mitsiades, 2007). Flow cytometry is the leading technology for the detection of MM cells (Paiva, 2008, Rawstron, 2013) and the acceptable method is based on CD138+CD38+ for the primary definition of plasma cells, enhanced by various combinations of markers such as CD19?/CD45?/CD56+ or CD27?/CD81?/CD20+/CD28+/CD117+/CD200+ (Rawstron, 2008, San Miguel, 2006). In addition to flow cytometry, polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based approaches are used to detect clonal cells as minimal residual disease (MRD) in MM, and demonstrate equivalent ability to detect MRD as compared to flow cytometry (Puig, 2014). However, two critical issues remain unresolved for the PCR approach: the inability to obtain successful primers in up to a third of patients, and the absolute requirement for a baseline sample (Ladetto, 2014, Martinez-Sanchez, 2008). Flow cytometry remains the method of choice due to its widespread accessibility in most haematology laboratories and its increasing ability to interrogate millions of cells in a short time. However, there is still a lack of uniformity in the specific biomarker set chosen to detect MRD, which has hampered 181785-84-2 manufacture the success of this technique (Flanders, 2013). Therefore, a new set of biomarkers for the detection of MM cells by flow cytometry is warranted. In MM, circulating tumour cells (CTCs) are considered an unfavourable prognostic factor and indicate an aggressive form of the disease (An, 2015, Paiva, 2013), and therefore detecting CTCs can be used as a powerful prognostic tool in this disorder (Peceliunas, 2012). In the clinical setting, CTCs in MM patients are detected using flow cytometry with CD138 (also termed SDC1) as the principle marker (An, 2015, Paiva, 2013, Peceliunas, 2012); however, recent studies suggest the presence of circulating clonal B-cells in 181785-84-2 manufacture MM that do not express CD138 (Thiago, 2014). In agreement with these findings, CTCs in MM have different biological characteristics compared to MM cells in the BM, in which the expression of several adhesion molecules, including CD138 was downregulated on CTCs (Paiva, 2013). Previous studies have also shown that shedding of CD138 is mostly prevalent in circulating MM cells (Seidel, 2000). These findings suggest that CD138+/? status is not a reliable method for the detection of CTCs in MM and an alternative biomarker strategy is needed. We have previously shown that hypoxia is a general feature of haematological malignancies, including MM (Azab, 2012a, Azab, 2013). Due to rapid tumour development, the oxygenation level in the BM is decreased, driving MM cells to egress from the primary tumour site and metastasize to a new BM niche. In addition, all CTCs exhibited a hypoxic phenotype (Azab, 2012a). Moreover, it was demonstrated that hypoxia induces overexpression of heparanase, which is responsible for CD138 shedding in cancer cells (Almeida, 1999, He, 2004, Peceliunas, 2012, Wu, 2010). In this study, we developed a new set of biomarkers to detect MM cells, both in the BM and in the circulation of MM patients independent of their CD138 expression using a two-colour flow cytometry. We found that most MRD and CTCs did not express CD138, but were detectable with the brand new method. Furthermore, we evaluated this new way for the recognition of MRD in the BM aswell as CTCs to be able to anticipate time-to-progression in MM sufferers and likened it to various other Compact disc138-based strategies and histology. Components AND Strategies Cell lifestyle The MM cell lines (MM1s, MM1r, OPM1, OPM2, H929, RPMI8226, MM1s-GFP-Luc and U266; mycoplasma-negative) were a sort present from Dr. Irene Ghobrial (Dana-Farber Cancers Institute, Boston, MA). Cells had been cultured in RPMI-1640 moderate (Corning CellGro, Mediatech, Manassas, VA), enriched with 10% fetal bovine serum (Gibco, Lifestyle Technologies, Grand Isle, NY), 2 mmol/l of L-glutamine, 100 u/ml Penicillin and 100 g/ml Streptomycin (CellGro, Mediatech). Cells had been incubated at 37C under normoxic (21% O2, NuAire drinking water coat incubator, Plymouth, MN) or hypoxic circumstances (1% O2; Coy, Lawn Lake, MI) for 24 or 48 h. Affected individual samples Bone tissue marrow (BM) aspirates and peripheral bloodstream (PB) examples from MM or healthful patients were extracted from the Siteman Cancers.