Levels of interleukin-16 in peripheral blood of 52 patients with multiple myeloma and its clinical significance.

Purpose: To explore the role of serum interleukin-16 (IL-16) in the occurrence of multiple myeloma (MM) and after the success chemotherapy and its clinical significance.

Methods: 52 cases of MM patients, 30 cases of AML patients and 30 healthy volunteers from Jan. 2011 to Jan. 2015 were collected in this study. There was 39 MM patients received chemotherapy. Among those, 24 patients received VAD regimen chemotherapy and 15 patients received BD regimen chemotherapy. Serum IL-16, cystatin C (Cys-C), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and levels of β2-microglobulin (β2-MG) were detected before and after the therapy of MM patients. And those results were compared to that of patients with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) and normal people respectively.

Results: The levels of serum IL-16, Cys-C, LDH and β2-MG in MM group were remarkably higher than that of normal control. It was of statistical significance of this difference (P<0.05). Levels of serum IL-16, Cys-C and LDH of MM patients who received therapy were all lower than that of patients before therapy. The serum IL-16 and β2-MG of 52 patients by preliminary diagnosis were analyzed through Pearson correlation analysis before they received therapy. The results showed that there was positive correlation between levels of IL-16 and β2-MG (r=0.782, P<0.01).

Conclusions: A high serum IL-16 level detected in newly diagnosed MM patients and its correlation with known factors of disease activity as well as the decrease of IL-16 after chemotherapy suggest that IL-16 may be implicated and a potential therapeutic target for MM.