Analysis of the effect of DEK overexpression on the survival and proliferation of bone marrow stromal cells

Objective: DEK is ubiquitously expressed and encodes a nuclear protein, which is also released from some cells. Overexpression of DEK suppresses proliferation of some blood cell progenitors whereas it increases proliferation of epithelial tumors. We showed that DEK is overexpressed in BM cells of 12% of multiple myeloma (MM) patients. Here, we aimed to test if DEK overexpression effects the proliferation and viability of BM stromal cells or MM cells co-cultured with DEK-overexpressing stromal cells, mimicking the BM microenvironment.