Fig. 7

miR29b and DNMT3B expression in plasma cells from MGUS and MM patients. A Levels of miR29b and DNMT3B mRNA in immunomagnetically purified plasma cells (CD138⁺) from bone marrow of MGUS (n = 20) and MM (n = 25) patients. Data from real-time PCR and the 2^−ΔΔCt method, normalized to RNU44 (miR29b) and GAPDH (DNMT3B) and expressed as fold change relative to the average value for plasma cells from 10 controls (patients with benign hematological diseases). Values are mean and SD. ***P ≤ .001, ****P < .0001, Mann–Whitney test. B Photomicrographs of bone marrow biopsies from MGUS and MM patients stained for miR29b (pink) and DNMT3B (brown). C Quantification of positive cells in B. D Correlation between numbers of plasma cells (CD138⁺) in bone marrow and levels of miR29b or DNMT3B mRNA (2^−ΔΔCt) in plasma cells from MGUS and MM patients. Spearman’s rank test. E Average methylation β values for the promoter regions (TSS1500, TSS200 and 5’UTR) of proteasome subunit genes in plasma cells from MGUS and MM patients. Boxes show median, interquartile range, minimum and maximum. **P ≤ .01, ***P ≤ .001. Mann–Whitney U test. F Kaplan–Meier survival curves for MM patients with low or high DNMT3B expression in plasma cells. Data from GSE4581 (left) and GSE9782 (right). Log-rank test