Analysis of the basal mRNA expression of sterol-responsive genes identified HMGCS1, but not LDLR, to be more highly expressed in insensitive MM cells compared with sensitive cells. A publically available dataset composed of basal expression profiles for many MM cell lines was mined for sterol-responsive genes that are differentially expressed in sensitive and insensitive MM cell lines. (A) The log₂ fold difference between insensitive and sensitive MM cells revealed that HMGCS1 (black arrow) but not LDLR (white arrow) was more highly expressed in insensitive cells. (B) The P values assessing the significance of any given gene's differential expression showed that HMGCS1 (black arrow) expression was more significantly different in sensitive and insensitive MM cells than most other genes, including LDLR (white arrow). mRNA from representative sensitive and insensitive MM cell lines was harvested for real-time PCR analysis of the expression of HMGCS1 (C) and LDLR (D), measured relative to GAPDH.