Recently, there has been an increasing interest in the expression pattern and biological significance of the CD45 molecule in myeloma cells. In this study, we have further defined the phenotypic pattern of CD45 expression on myeloma cells. Using a panel of myeloma cell lines, we showed that CD45 showed a remarkably heterogeneous pattern of expression. Whereas some cell lines were CD45(+) and others were CD45(-), the U-266 cell line, although predominantly CD45(-), still had a considerable subpopulation of CD45(+) cells. Among the myeloma cell lines examined, there was a direct correlation between interleukin-6 (IL-6) dependency and CD45 positivity. Moreover, we showed that IL-6 stimulation led to the induction of expression of CD45 and cellular proliferation. Using independent experimental approaches, we could show that the IL-6-induced effects were closely linked to CD45 expression. First, sorting out CD45(+) and CD45(-) subsets of U-266 cell line followed by IL-6 stimulation, only the CD45(+) cells showed a proliferative advantage after IL-6 stimulation. Second, IL-6 stimulation of sorted CD45(-) cells was gradually followed by phenotypic conversion to CD45(+) cells that started after 2 days as judged by the detection of CD45 mRNA by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and immunophenotypic analysis by flow cytometry. Withdrawal of IL-6 from the medium led to gradual loss of CD45 expression in CD45(+) flow-sorted U-266 cells. Third, the use of vanadate, a potent inhibitor of protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTP), abrogated the IL-6-induced proliferation in the CD45(+) myeloma cells. On the other hand, cellular proliferation induced by IL-6 was not affected by the serine-threonine phosphatase inhibitor okadaic acid. Our data show that the expression pattern of CD45 in myeloma cell lines is heterogeneous and show for the first time that CD45 expression can be induced by IL-6 stimulation. Finally, these data shed some light on the biological role of CD45 in myeloma by determining the proliferative population among myeloma cells.