Discussion
Two major messages arise from this study. 1) The majority of MGF genes is expressed by the bone marrow environment. 2) Several MGF and their receptors are overexpressed throughout normal plasma cell differentiation.
22 out of the 51 MGF genes that could be interrogated by Affymetrix were significantly overexpressed by at least one BM environment population compared to others and to MMC, whereas only 3 of them were significantly overexpressed in MMC compared to the environment. These data emphasize the importance of the tumor microenvironment in MM pathogenesis. Purified primary MMC rapidly undergo apoptosis as soon as they are purified, suggesting that MGF produced by MMC themselves are not sufficient to maintain their survival [
19]. The environment niche for MMC is not elucidated presently. It may resemble the normal plasma cell niche which comprises SDF-1-producing stromal cells and that is shared with hematopoietic stem cells and pre pro B cells [
20]. Several studies have confirmed the importance of the endosteal cells, in particular BMSC (differentiated or not into osteoblasts) and osteoclasts to support myeloma cell proliferation and survival [
21,
22]. Other cells of the BM environment (CD14, CD3, PMN) and minor populations like plasmacytoid dendritic cells [
23] could be important as well. In this study, we show that BMSC and osteoclasts are the main source of MGF. They highly express 11/21 and 3/21 "environment" MGF genes, respectively, in particular MGF that have been reproducibly identified in several studies: IGF-1, IL-6, APRIL, IL-10 [
3]. In addition, these two cell types produce complementary sets of MGF, insuring that the endosteal niche could provide an optimal cocktail of growth factors for MMC survival. A point to emphasize is that MMC may progressively select a tumor-promoting environment. We have shown that BMSC from MM patients (MM-BMSC) support the growth of a stroma-dependent myeloma cell line better than normal BMSC and show a reduced matrix mineralisation capability [
24]. Furthermore, BMSC from MM patients and from normal donors have a distinctive gene expression profile on microarrays analysis [
24]. The fact that MM-BMSC have a specific gene signature although they have been cultured in vitro for several days in the absence of malignant plasma cells (cells are harvested after 41 days of culture for microarrays analysis [
24]) suggest that cells harvested from the bone marrow microenvironment of myeloma patients keep their specific features even after in vitro culture. The second interesting finding is that MGF and MGF receptor gene expression is increasing progressively throughout normal plasma cell differentiation. 4 MGF and 9 MGF receptor genes were overexpressed in "PPC+BMPC" compared to B cells. 11 MGF and 11 MGF receptor genes were overexpressed in BMPC compared to PPC. This suggests that PC differentiation, and in particular the transition from immature plasmablast to mature plasma cell, is associated with a stronger dependence on growth factors. In agreement with this finding, it has been shown that normal plasma cells can survive and produce antibodies for very long periods as soon as they are located in the appropriate survival niches in the BM [
25]. In contrast, 3 MGF genes only (AREG, NRG3 and Wnt5A) and none of the MGF receptor genes were significantly overexpressed in MMC compared to BMPC. One explanation is that MMC use the same growth factors than normal plasma cells. Accordingly, several growth factors for MMC also support the survival of normal plasma cells, like IL-6, BAFF and April [
26,
27], their specific receptors being expressed both in normal and malignant plasma cells (see table
2).
It was not in the scope of the study to validate the Affymetrix expression of all MGF. However, some of them have already been analysed by real-time RT-PCR and described by our group, like members of the EGF-family. Using real-time RT-PCR on MMC from 7 patients and U133A+B Affymetrix microarrays on a different cohort of 65 MM patients' samples, we have shown that AREG [
28], NRG2 and NRG3 [
17] are significantly overexpressed in MMC compared to their normal counterpart. This is in agreement with the data presented here (see Figure S-I). Previously, we also compared the expression of EGF-family members in MMC (n = 7 samples) and in the total BM microenvironment (n = 7 samples), using real-time RT-PCR. We have shown that NRG2 and NRG3 are mainly expressed by MMC whereas HB-EGF is mainly expressed by the environment [
17]. Again, those results correlate with the current Affymetrix data (see figure
2 for NRG2 and NRG3; and figure
4A for HB-EGF). Other examples of formerly validated genes are Baff and April (Figures
4A and
3B), 2 members of the TNF superfamilly that were already shown to be highly expressed by the myeloma microenvironment compared to the MMC themselves by real-time RT-PCR [
9]. Therefore, the good correlation between real-time RT-PCR analysis performed in independent series of samples and the Affymetrix expression profiles depicted here demonstrates the relevance of the present study and shows the power of microarrays to investigate as a whole the expression of MGF/MGFR genes in PC differentiation and MM.
Most interestingly, the microarrays analysis described in this paper uncovers new MGF and MGFR and/or describes for the fist time expression patterns of well known MGF. The new and most striking findings are discussed in the following.
IL-6 is an essential growth factor for myeloma cells [
4,
5]. Although it is now admitted that IL-6 is produced by the environment, it has been reported that IL-6 is produced by MMC [
4] and that autocrine IL-6 production reflects a highly malignant phenotype [
29]. Here we show that BMSC are the main producer of IL-6, in agreement with the literature data [
30‐
32]. However, IL-6 can be produced by MMC in some patients (36% presence, see additional file
2, table S-II), but at a much lower extend compared to BMSC (fold-chance in expression between BMSC and MMC = 33.4). An important issue would be to understand the significance of this low autocrine IL-6 expression, compared to the huge amounts produced by BMSC. We have shown that a weak autocrine IL-6 production is sufficient to trigger cell cycling on myeloma cell lines (HMCL), whereas survival of those cells requires large exogenous IL-6 concentrations [
33]. It is noteworthy that immature CD45
+ MMC express the IL-6 gene, unlike mature MMC [
34]. In this population, autocrine IL-6 could be sufficient to trigger cell cycling, whereas the BM environment could be critical for triggering survival by producing other survival factors. In agreement with our previous findings [
35], here we show that IL-6R and gp130 are expressed in 99% and 100% of the patients, respectively, indicating that the vast majority of the patients, if not all, is able to respond to IL-6 stimulation. We have recently shown that IL-6R expression in MMC is a bad prognostic factor due to its strong association with t(4:14) translocation [
35]. Interestingly, both IL-6R and gp130 were overexpressed in normal plasma cells compared to B cells, in agreement with the known survival effect of IL-6 on plasma cells [
26].
IGF-1 is an other essential growth factor for myeloma cells [
7,
35,
36] and inhibition of the IGF-1-pathway reduces myeloma cell growth both
in vitro and
in vivo [
37‐
39]. It has been speculated that BMSC would be an important source of IGF-1 in MM, probably based on the fact that murine stromal cells do secrete IGF-1 [
40]. However, we show here that MM-BMSC do not/weakly express IGF-1. IGF-1 expression was 92-fold higher in osteoclasts compared to BMSC (see Figures
3B) and 4/5 BMSC displayed an absent call for IGF-1 (additional file
2, table S-II). In addition, MMC from all 131 patients expressed IGF-1. The presence of autocrine IGF-1 has already been reported in some HMCL [
7], but this is to our knowledge the first study showing IGF-1 expression as a hallmark of primary MMC. IGF-1R had 100% absent call in BMPC whereas it was expressed in 32% of the MMC samples (see table
2), suggesting that functional IGF-1/IGF-1R autocrine loops are present in MMC of those patients. Recently, we have shown that IGF-1R expression in MMC delineates a group with adverse prognosis [
35].
HGF. Several evidences suggest that the HGF/c-Met signalling pathway plays an important role in the biology of MM [
41‐
44]. Here we describe for the first time the expression of c-Met in a large cohort of patients, and we have found that it was expressed in MMC from 50% of the patients. Although HGF expression in the environment (BMSC, CD14, PMN) was not statistically significantly different than that in MMC, it should be noted that HGF expression was very high in some patients' MMC (range 1-5318) suggesting that autocrine HGF loops are likely predominant in those high expresser patients. This is in agreement with elevated HGF levels found in the serum of some MM patients in association with advanced stages of MM and extended bone lesions [
45,
46]. It is noteworthy that HGF was overexpressed in MMC compared to BMPC in the public data set from the group of Shaughnessy (p ≤ .05, fold-change = 7.5, table S-VII). It did not reach the significance in our data set, probably because the number of samples is lesser.
Wnt-family. The expression of Wnt-family members and FRZ receptors has been documented in some myeloma cell lines [
47] and in 4 primary MMC samples [
48], and the biological relevance of this pathway in MM has been demonstrated [
48,
49]. In the present study, 8 Wnt were found in at least one BM subpopulation (MMC and/or environment): Wnt 3, 4,10A, 11, 16, 5A, 5B, 6. Noteworthy, Wnt5A was one of the 3 MGF significantly overexpressed in MMC compared to normal BMPC. All 7 FRZ receptors that could be interrogated with Affymetrix probe sets were expressed in some MMC samples and 3 of them (FRZ4, FRZ7, FRZ8) were expressed in more that 90% of the patients. LRP6, the required coreceptor of FRZ receptors, was expressed in 43% of the MMC samples. Altogether, those data indicate that Wnt/FRZ expression is a hallmark of MM. Dikkopf-1, an inhibitor of Wnt signaling expressed by primary MM cells, contributes to osteolytic bone disease by inhibiting the differentiation into osteoblasts [
50]. Additional studies will be needed in order to understand the impact of DKK1 on the Wnt-induced proliferation of myeloma cells. Furthermore, we show that expression of several Wnt and FRZ is upregulated during normal plasma cell differentiation. Wnt5A and Wnt10 as well as FRZ1,2,6,7,8 were overexpressed in BMPC compared to PPC. FRZ1,3,6 were overexpressed in (PPC+BMPC) compared to B cells. Those data provide a rationale to investigate the role of the Wnt/FRZ family in the biology of normal plasma cell.
FGF family. Analysis of the FGF/FGFR family in MM has been mainly restricted to the angiogenic factor FGF2 (also called basic-FGF) and the nature of the cells producing FGF2 has remained controversial [
32,
51]. Here show that BMSC are the main source of FGF2. FGF2 was also expressed in 29% of the patients' MMC (38/131 present call, median expression = 25) in agreement with the data from Colla et al. [
51], but the expression was 29.7-fold lower than that in BMSC. Other BM subpopulations (CD3, CD14, CD15) did not express FGF2 (see additional file
2, table S-II and figure
3A), as previously reported by Bisping et al. [
32]. Furthermore, we show that other FGF-family members are broadly expressed in MM. Among the 13/22 FGFs that could be investigated with Affymetrix probe sets, 10 were expressed in at least one BM subpopulation (MMC and/or environment), suggesting that, like FGF2, they may directly or indirectly stimulate MMC survival and proliferation. Of note, it has been shown that only FGF2, 8 and 13 could be detected at the protein level on 12 HMCL whereas multiple FGFs were found at the mRNA level [
52]. Although it was not in the scope of our study, FGF expression in MM should be validated at the protein level.
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Authors' contributions
KM designed research, performed the experiments, analyzed data and wrote the paper. DH, TM, JFR and HG collected bone marrow samples and clinical data. JM, DH, TR, MJ and STP analyzed data. BK is the senior investigator who designed research and wrote the paper. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.