Expression of 85-kDa protein of adriamycin-resistant tumor cells during hematopoietic differentiation of THP-1 and HEL cells.

An 85-kDa protein was identified in adriamycin-resistant tumor cells recognized by monoclonal antibody MRK-20. Recently, the monoclonal antibody MRK-20 was found to be reactive to human peripheral mononuclear cells. In order to investigate the molecular function of the 85-kDa protein, we carried out flow cytometric analysis of the expression of the 85-kDa protein during monocytic differentiation of the hematopoietic cells. Human myelomonocytic leukemia THP-1 cells were induced to differentiate into macrophage-like cells by treatment with 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA). A maximum of 55% of the cells expressed the 85-kDa protein along with the CD-14 antigen, which is a surface marker of monocytes and macrophages. The kinetic analysis revealed that the 85-kDa protein appeared prior to the expression of the CD-14 antigen. The 85-kDa protein was also coexpressed with CD-14 in THP-1 cells that were induced to differentiate by recombinant tumor necrosis factor-alpha, which is one of the physiological inducers of monocytic differentiation. In human erythroleukemia, HEL cells, the 85-kDa protein was constitutively coexpressed with CD-14. The expression of both the 85-kDa protein and CD-14 was drastically reduced during the megakaryocytic differentiation of the HEL cells with TPA. These results suggest that the 85-kDa protein could be expressed on monocytic cells as well as CD-14 and that the expression of the 85-kDa protein might be regulated at an earlier stage of monocytic differentiation of hematopoietic cells than the expression of CD-14.