Journal
BLOOD
Volume 108, Issue 8, Pages 2755-2763Publisher
AMER SOC HEMATOLOGY
DOI: 10.1182/blood-2006-02-005488
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Funding
- NCI NIH HHS [CA 95241, R01 CA 83724-01, P50 CA 200707-01, P01 CA 62242] Funding Source: Medline
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Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia (WM) is a B-cell malignancy characterized by the ability of the B-cell clone to differentiate into plasma cells. Although the clinical syndrome and the pathologic characteristics are well defined, little is known about its biology and controversy still exists regarding its cell of origin. In this gene-expression study, we compared the transcription profiles of WM with those of other malignant B cells including (chronic lymphocytic leukemia [CLL] and multiple myeloma [MM]) as well as normal cells (peripheral-blood B cells and bone marrow plasma cells). We found that WM has a homogenous gene expression regardless of 6q deletion status and clusters with CLL and normal B cells on unsupervised clustering with very similar expression profiles. Only a small gene set has expression profiles unique to WM compared to CLL and MM. The most significantly up-regulated gene is IL6 and the most significantly associated pathway for this set of genes is MAPK signaling. Thus, IL6 and its downstream signaling may be of biologic importance in WM. Further elucidation of the role of IL-6 in WM is warranted as this may offer a potential therapeutic avenue.
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