Physiology Commons^™

New Bone Cell Type Identified As Driver Of Drug Resistance In Multiple Myeloma: The Bone Marrow Adipocyte, Carolyne Falank, Heather Fairfield, Mariah Farrell, Michaela Reagan

Maine Medical Center

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a hematological malignancy that is characterized by clonal proliferation of transformed plasma cells within the bone marrow (BM) and severe bone disease. Although MM cells are initially sensitive to many therapies, patients eventually relapse with refractory disease. Because MM cells show a dependency on the BM microenvironment for survival and proliferation, and BM adipocytes (BMAs) demonstrate a unique, endocrine signaling capacity and lipid composition, it is likely that there is cross-talk between MM cells and BMAs that leads to tumor support. Unlike the influences of osteoblasts and osteoclasts, the effect of BMAs on MM cells is …