Gene-expression profiling of Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia reveals a phenotype more similar to chronic lymphocytic leukemia than multiple myeloma.

ABSTRACT: Waldenström macroglobulinemia (WM) is a B-cell malignancy characterized by the ability of the B-cell clone to differentiate into plasma cells. Although the clinical syndrome and the pathologic characteristics are well defined, little is known about its biology and controversy still exists regarding its cell of origin. In this gene-expression study, we compared the transcription profiles of WM with those of other malignant B cells including (chronic lymphocytic leukemia [CLL] and multiple myeloma [MM]) as well as normal cells (peripheral-blood B cells and bone marrow plasma cells). We found that WM has a homogenous gene expression regardless of 6q deletion status and clusters with CLL and normal B cells on unsupervised clustering with very similar expression profiles. Only a small gene set

SUBMITTER: Chng WJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1895596 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature