[Effect of arsenic trioxide on bone marrow stromal cells of patients with multiple myeloma]

To explore the effect of arsenic trioxide (As2O3) on growth and secretion of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) of bone marrow stroma cells (BMSC) from the patients with multiple myeloma (MM). Specimens of bone marrow aspiration from MM patients were used to establish BMSC cultures. BMSC and human MM cell line CZ-1 were cultured together or alone in the absence or presence of As2O3 at various concentrations (1-20.0 micromol/L). Cell growth inhibition was assessed by MTT assay, cytokines in the culture supernatants were measured with ELISA. The results showed that As2O3 had cytostatic effect on CZ-1 with fifty percent growth inhibition (IC50) for 48 hours at 2.3 micromol/L. As2O3 did not inhibit the growth of BMSC. High levels of IL-6 and VEGF have been found in the culture supernatants of BMSC from MM patients. Cytokine production of BMSC treated with As2O3 significantly decreased as compared with controls (P < 0.05). Excitingly, even the increased cytokine production triggered by adhesion of MM cell and BMSC was also inhibited by As2O3. It is concluded that As2O3 has no inhibitory effect on cell growth of BMSC, but inhibit the production of IL-6 and VEGF by BMSC.