Chemerin is elevated in multiple myeloma patients and is expressed by stromal cells and pre-adipocytes

Chemerin is a recently discovered adipokine shown to be involved in both inflammatory and metabolic processes. Here, we demonstrate that chemerin serum levels are elevated in patients with multiple myeloma and that it increases with disease progression. We found that chemerin is expressed by stromal cells and preadipocytes, whereas its receptor CCRL2 is expressed by primary myeloma cells, suggesting a paracrine signaling loop between bone marrow stromal cells/adipocytes and myeloma cells. This is the first study exploring chemerin and its receptors in multiple myeloma. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s40364-018-0134-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.