Cd 138 Immunohistochemistry Biopsy Tissue

CD138 is expressed on plasma cells and can be useful in the diagnosis of plasma cell neoplasms. Epithelial cells and endothelial cells may also express CD138. In normal tonsil, CD138 strongly stains the membranes of mature plasma cells and squamous epithelial cells. CD138 expression is a hallmark of plasma cells and multiple myeloma cells. However, decreased expression of CD138 is frequently observed in plasma cells of myeloma patients, although the clinical significance of this is unclear. To evaluate the significance of low expression of CD138 in MM, we examined the phenotypes of MM cells expressing low levels of CD138. Flow cytometric analysis of primary MM cells revealed a significant decrease in CD138 expression in patients with relapsed/progressive disease compared with untreated MM patients. Patients with low levels of CD138 had a worse overall survival compared with patients with high levels of CD138, in newly diagnosed patients and patients receiving high-dose chemotherapy followed by autologous stem-cell transplantation. Multiple myeloma (MM) is a B-cell neoplasia, characterized by the clonal expansion of malignant plasma cells in the bone marrow. During normal B-cell development, cells acquire expression of CD138, also known as syndecan-1 (SDC1), a marker highly specific for terminally differentiated normal plasma cells. CD138 is a heparin sulphate proteoglycan that controls tumor cell survival, growth, adhesion and bone cell differentiation in MM. Since CD138 is a specific surface antigen for MM cells and plasma cells in the bone marrow, it has been used for the purification of MM cells from clinical samples and in the classification of MM cells in gene expression profiling analyses.