Expression and Clinical Significance of β-Catenin in Multiple Myeloma.

OBJECTIVE: To detect the expression of β-catenin in mononuclears of bone marrow of healthy people, primary and relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma(MM), and analysis the clinical date and the curative effect of the MM patient, to open out the clinical significance of the expression of the β-catenin in MM.

METHODS: Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Wes tern blot were used to detect mRNA and protein expression of β-catenin in bone marrow samples of 12 primary MM patients, 14 relapsed/refractory MM patients, and 11 healthy people.

RESULTS: The positive rates and the expression levels of β-catenin mRNA were significantly lower in healthy people than in MM patients (27.3% vs. 88.5%, 0.22±0.09 vs. 0.80±0.15, P <0.01), the expression level of β-catenin mRNA(β-catenin/β-actin) was significantly lower in newly diagnosed patients than in MM patients (0.7196±0.11 vs. 0.8517±0.16, P <0.05). β-catenin protein were not detected in all of the healthy people; while the positive rates of β-catenin was 69.2% in MM patients (P <0.01), and its expression levels was significantly higher in relapsed/refractory patients than in primary patients (0.3231±0.11 vs. 0.2065±0.08, P<0.05). In 10 primary MM patients which can be evaluated the curative effects, the expression rate in no response patients was significant lower than in response patients (14.3% vs. 100%, P <0.05). To stage the patients, the statistics show the expression of β-catenin protein in Durie/Salmon stage III was significant higher than stageII(87.5% vs. 40%, P <0.05) and in ISS stage III was significant higher than lor IIstage(100% vs. 45.5% or 33.3%).

CONCLUSION: To analysis the relationship between β-catenin and β2-MG or serum LDH, we found the β-catenin protein was positive correlative with the expression level of β2-MG (r=0.688, P<0.01). and serum LDH(r=0.502, P<0.05).