Effects of thalidomide on long-term bone marrow cultures from patients with myelodysplastic syndromes: induction of IL-10 expression in the stromal layers.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the in vitro effects of thalidomide on long-term bone marrow cultures from patients with myelodysplastic syndrome. We demonstrated that thalidomide induced an increase in granulocyte-macrophage colony forming unit numbers and in IL-10 expression. Thalidomide also promoted a slight increase in IL-6, IL-1ß and TNF-α expression in the stromal layers. The numbers of erythroid burst forming units, the apoptosis rate of hematopoietic cells, and VEGF and TNF-α expression levels in culture supernatants were not modulated. Our results indicate a participation of thalidomide upon the hematopoietic microenvironment of patients with myelodysplastic syndromes, especially in the up regulation of IL-10.