An Improved Animal Model of Multiple Myeloma Bone Disease

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a plasma cell malignancy that represents an accumulation of terminally differentiated monoclonal plasma cells (PCs) in the bone marrow (BM), accompanied by increased osteoclasts and decreased osteoblasts in areas adjacent to myeloma cells, leading to MM associated bone disease (MMBD). Osteolytic bone disease is one of the defining features of MM. During the disease, over 90% of patients are developing MMBD. Many of MM animal models have been developed and enable us to interrogate the mechanisms of MM tumorigenesis. Most MMBD models were derived by intratibial injection of myeloma cells. In these models, osteolysis occurs locally at the site where myeloma cells were injected. Mouse myeloma cells, 5TGM1 transplanting C57BL/KaLwRij mouse via the tail vein develops and shows MMBD features close to human MMBD. Even in this model, the MMBD levels on each mouse are widely varied. Lack of appropriate in vivo MMBD model hampers our understanding of the disease and developing therapy. We try to establish a murine model for MMBD to study its pathophysiology and test a novel treatment.

1x10⁶ luciferase-expressing 5TGM1 (5TGM1-Luc) cells were injected into 8-12 week old NOD SCID gamma mouse (NSG) and C57BL/KaLwRij mouse via the tail vein. Myeloma progression was weekly assessed by in vivo bioluminescence (BL) imaging using IVIS-200 (Perkin Elmer). Mice were sacrificed when they showed endpoint signals such as significant weight loss, hindlimb paralysis, etc.. At postmortem, the micro-computer tomography (micro-CT) was performed for bone histo-morphometric analyses using micro CT400, Scano medical, Inc.

The median survival was 56 days in NSG, while 42 days in C57BL/KaLwRij. In vivo BL image analysis showed that myeloma slowly develops in NSG mouse in comparison to C57BL/KaLwRij mouse. Histomorphic analyses found that severe osteolytic lesions occur at the lumbar spine in NSG mouse compared to C57BL/KaLwRij mouse, but no significant difference at the femur of both strains. At the lumbar spine, trabecular thickness (p < 0.0004) and trabecular space (p < 0.0014) were significantly increased in NSG mouse compared to C57BL/KaLwRij mouse. On the contrary, trabecular number (p < 0.0002) and bone volume density (p < 0.0005) were significantly decreased in NSG mouse compared to C57BL/KaLwRij mouse.

In conclusion, we found that the systemic 5TGM1 injected NSG mouse slowly progresses myeloma and develops more severe MMBD than C57BL/KaLwRij model. This model will serve a better MMBD model to evaluate the therapeutic effects of MMBD targeted drugs.