Effect of curcumin and dexamethasone on growth/viability of bone marrow CD138⁺ multiple myeloma cells. Enriched CD138⁺ cells (2 × 10⁵/0.1 mL) from bone marrow aspirates of multiple myeloma patient no. 20 were cultured in the absence or presence of indicated concentrations of dexamethasone (A) or curcumin (B) for 24 hours, and cell viability was measured by MTT assay as described in “Patients, materials, and methods.” Values represent the mean ± SD of triplicate cultures.