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Production of Wnt Inhibitors by Myeloma Cells: Potential Effects on Canonical Wnt Pathway in the Bone Microenvironment

¹ Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplantation Center, Department of Internal Medicine and Biomedical Science, ² Pathology, ³ "Dipartimento di Salute Animale, Sezione di Malattie Infettive degli Animali," and ⁴ Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Parma, Parma, Italy

Requests for reprints: Nicola Giuliani, Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplantation Center, Department of Internal Medicine and Biomedical Science, University of Parma, via Gramsci 14, 43100 Parma, Italy. Phone: 00390521903299; Fax: 00390521903264; E-mail: Nicola.Giuliani{at}unipr.it or N_giuliani{at}yahoo.com.

Osteoblast impairment occurs within multiple myeloma cell infiltration into the bone marrow. Canonical Wnt signaling activation in osteoprogenitor cells is involved in osteoblast formation through the stabilization of dephosphorylated ß-catenin and its nuclear translocation. The effects of multiple myeloma cells on Wnt signaling in human mesenchymal/osteoprogenitor cells are unclear. In 60 multiple myeloma patients checked, we found that among the Wnt inhibitors, Dickkopf-1 and secreted frizzled-related protein-3 were produced by multiple myeloma cells. However, although multiple myeloma cells or multiple myeloma bone marrow plasma affected expression of genes in the canonical Wnt signaling and inhibited ß-catenin stabilization in murine osteoprogenitor cells, they failed to block the canonical Wnt pathway in human mesenchymal or osteoprogenitor cells. Consistently, Wnt3a stimulation in human osteoprogenitor cells did not blunt the inhibitory effect of multiple myeloma cells on osteoblast formation. Consequently, despite the higher Wnt antagonist bone marrow levels in osteolytic multiple myeloma patients compared with nonosteolytic ones, ß-catenin immunostaining was not significantly different. Our results support the link between the production of Wnt antagonists by multiple myeloma cells and the presence of bone lesions in multiple myeloma patients but show that myeloma cells do not inhibit canonical Wnt signaling in human bone microenvironment. [Cancer Res 2007;67(16):7665–74]

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