Increased lncRNA HOTAIR expression promotes the chemoresistance of multiple myeloma to dexamethasone by regulating cell viability and apoptosis by mediating the JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathway.

Multiple studies have shown that HOX antisense intergenic RNA (HOTAIR), an oncogenic long non‑coding RNA (lncRNA), is dysregulated in leukemia and is involved in tumor progression. The aim of the present study was to determine whether HOTAIR could serve as a novel biomarker for the diagnosis of multiple myeloma (MM), and to investigate its role in regards to MM cell viability and chemoresistance to dexamethasone (DEX). The results revealed that the expression of HOTAIR was significantly upregulated in serum, bone marrow and primary CD138+ cells from MM patients compared with those from normal controls as determined by qPCR.