MYELOMA AFFECTS BOTH THE GROWTH AND FUNCTION OF HUMAN OSTEOBLAST-LIKE CELLS

Myeloma behaves differently to other osteolytic tumours which metastasize to bone, in that the latter usually provoke reactive bone formation in the host bone. A previous study showed that a myeloma cell line (GM1500) secreted an osteoblast-inhibiting factor(s). The present study was undertaken to determine whether other myeloma cells also secreted a factor(s) which inhibited both cell proliferation and DNA synthesis of osteoblast-like cells and whether the myeloma also affected the function of osteoblast. The results showed that a second cell line (Kappas 707) as well as myeloma tissue taken from two patients had a similar effect. The myeloma cells did not affect total collagen or protein synthesis, and did not affect the overall degree of mineralization. A biaphasic effect was seen on alkaline phosphatase activity. Thus, although the proliferation of the pre-osteoblast was affected, the synthetic functions of the osteoblast were not.