Extensive workups were done, and there were elevated serum levels of interleukin-6 and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), capillary pseudothrombus accumulation associated with minimal change nephrotic syndrome, CKD, and WM.
Use of IL-6 and/or IL-10 blocking antibodies abolished the protective effect conferred on nontransduced BTK<sup>WT</sup> by coculture with BTK<sup>Cys481Ser</sup> expressing WM or ABC DLBCL cell counterparts.
However, the BCL2<sup>+</sup>IL6<sup>+</sup>AID<sup>-</sup> model also exhibited shortcomings, such as low serum IgM levels and histopathological changes not seen in patients with WM, collectively indicating that further refinements of the model are required to achieve better correlations with disease characteristics of WM.
The IL6(-174G/C) polymorphism is a prognostic factor for survival after treatment initiation in Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia patients aged 65 years or less.
In the other patients, serum IL-1 beta was undetectable or slightly increased and IL-6 was elevated in a single patient with Waldenström's macroglobulinemia.
In contrast, anti-IL-6 antibodies did not preclude the differentiation into plasma cells of B cells from the four patients with bona fide Waldenström macroglobulinemia.