PILOT STUDY--MOLECULAR BASIS OF MULTIPLE MYELOMA

多发性骨髓瘤是一种疾病，其特征是 体内终末分化B淋巴细胞的克隆性群体 骨髓。对大多数病人来说，这种病是不治之症 确诊后的平均存活时间约为三年。 在过去的几年里，试图改进多发性骨髓瘤的治疗 20年来，只取得了轻微的改善。由于缺乏 成功开发治疗多发性骨髓瘤的药物 目前可用的治疗方法，该实验室正在启动研究 旨在更好地了解多发性骨髓瘤的生物学。 我们希望对多发性骨髓瘤的发病机制有更好的了解 将允许开发新的治疗方法。 到目前为止，对多发性骨髓瘤生物学的研究还没有 确定疾病的分子基础。最近，对 骨髓瘤细胞的表面标志物表现出一致的模式 表面标志物的表达有别于浆细胞。我们假设 这些差异代表了基因表达模式的改变 在多发性骨髓瘤发病机制中起关键作用的分子事件。 为了验证这一假设，我们建议比较骨髓瘤中的mrna表达。 细胞和正常浆细胞使用差异技术。

Multiple myeloma is a disease characterized by the accumulation of a clonal population of terminally differentiated B lymphocytes within the bone marrow. For the vase majority of patients, the disease is incurable and average survival from diagnosis is approximately three years. Attempts to improve upon therapy for multiple myeloma over the last twenty years have resulted in only modest improvements. Due to the lack of success in developing curative therapy for multiple myeloma using currently available treatments, this laboratory is initiating studies designed to provide a better understanding of multiple myeloma biology. We hope that a better understanding of pathogenesis of multiple myeloma will permit the development of novel curative therapies. Studies into the biology of multiple myeloma have thus far failed to identify the molecular basis of the disease. Recently, studies of surface markers in myeloma cells exhibit a consistent pattern of surfacemarker expression distinct from plasma cells. We hypothesize that these differences represent an altered pattern of gene expression resulting from molecular events crucial in multiple myeloma pathogenesis. To test this hypothesis, we propose to compare mRNA expression in myeloma cells and normal plasma cells using the differential technique.