CYTOGENETIC STUDY OF 30 PATIENTS WITH MULTIPLE-MYELOMA - COMPARISON OF 3 AND 6 DAY BONE-MARROW CULTURES STIMULATED OR NOT WITH CYTOKINES BYUSING A MINIATURIZED KARYOTYPIC METHOD
C. Brigaudeau et al., CYTOGENETIC STUDY OF 30 PATIENTS WITH MULTIPLE-MYELOMA - COMPARISON OF 3 AND 6 DAY BONE-MARROW CULTURES STIMULATED OR NOT WITH CYTOKINES BYUSING A MINIATURIZED KARYOTYPIC METHOD, British Journal of Haematology, 96(3), 1997, pp. 594-600
Cytogenetics in multiple myeloma (MM) cases are generally difficult to
perform due to the low proliferation index of malignant plasma cells
(PC) in most cases. Although IL-6 and GM-CSF stimulate the in vitro pr
oliferation of malignant plasma cells, their usefulness for improving
cytogenetic results in multiple myeloma patients remains questionable,
because results which compare various culture conditions in a suffici
ent number of patients are not available. By using a miniaturized kary
otypic method, we compared in 30 multiple myeloma patients the number
and percentage of clonal abnormal mitoses obtained from 3 and 6 d bone
marrow cultures performed without or with two combinations of cytokin
es: IL-6 + GM-CSF or IL-6 + GM-CSF + IL-2 + IL-4 + TNF alpha. The perc
entage of patients with an abnormal karyotype, which varied with the D
urie and Salmon stage of the disease, as well as the type of numerical
and structural karyotypic abnormalities that we detected, were in agr
eement with published results. The detection of clonal karyotypic abno
rmalities was better after 3 d of culture without cytokine than in all
other culture conditions. The higher percentage of patients at all st
ages of MM with an abnormal karyotype in our study (76 . 6%) than in p
revious ones (20% to 60%) is largely explained by the large number of
mitoses analysed in six different culture conditions due to the use of
a miniaturized karyotypic method.