[Expression of midkine and vascular endothelial growth factor in bone marrow of patients with multiple myeloma and its significance].

The purpose of this study was to explore the expressions of midkine (MK) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in multiple myeloma (MM), and to evaluate their relation with angiogenesis and prognosis. The expression levels of MK and VEGF in bone marrow mononuclear cells of 31 MM patients in different stages and 20 controls were detected by real-time fluorescent quantitative RT-PCR. The results showed that the MM patients had significantly higher MK and VEGF expression level than control group (p < 0.05, p < 0.01), and there was a linear relationship between MK and VEGF (r = 0.692, p < 0.01); The expression levels of MK and VEGF in stage III was significantly higher than those in stage I and stage II (p < 0.05, p < 0.01), but there was no difference between stage I and stage II (p > 0.05); MK and VEGF levels were significantly decreased in MM patients after treatment than those before treatment (p < 0.05, p < 0.01). It is concluded that the high expression of MK and VEGF is correlated with angiogenesis and prognosis of MM, and there is synergistic effect between MK and VEGF. It is supposed that the monitoring MK and VEGF expression levels may contribute to guide the treatment and estimate prognosis for MM.