Role of microRNA in regulation of myeloma-related angiogenesis and survival

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a malignant disease caused by clonal proliferation of plasma cells that result in monoclonal gammopathy and severe end organ damage. Despite the uniform clinical signs, the disease is very diverse in terms of the nature and sequence of the underlying molecular events. Multiple cellular processes are involved in helping the malignant cells to remain viable and maintain proliferative properties in the hypoxic microenvironment of the bone marrow. Specifically, the process of angiogenesis, triggered by the interactions between the malignant MM cells and the stroma cells around them, was found to be critical for MM progression. In this review we highlight the current understanding about the epigenetic regulation of the proliferation and apoptosis of MM cells and its dependency on angiogenesis in the bone marrow that is carried out by different microRNAs.