Effect of valproic acid and antiapoptotic cytokines on differentiation and apoptosis induction of human leukemia cells.

This work compares effect of histondeacetylase inhibitor, valproic acid (VA), on proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis induction in two human leukemic cell lines: HL-60 (human promyleocytic leukemia, p53 negative) and MOLT-4 (human T-lymphocyte leukemia, p53 wild type). Incubation with VA caused decrease in percentage of cells in S phase of cell cycle. The decrease was more intensive in HL-60 cells, where the cells in S phase were absent 6 days after the beginning of incubation with VA (4 mmol/l). 3-day-long incubation of HL-60 cells with 4 mmol/l VA caused differentiation of these cells, marked by increase in CD11b and co-stimulatory/adhesion molecule CD86, and induction of a significant apoptosis. Annexin V positive cells lost the CD11b antigen. 3-day-long incubation of MOLT-4 cells with VA (1-2 mmol/l) inhibited proliferation and decreased percentage of cells in S phase of the cell cycle. 90% of MOLT-4 cells are CD7 positive. This CD7 positivity is not changed during apoptosis induction (detected as Annexin V positivity). On the other hand, CD4 marker expression decreases after incubation with 1-2 mmol/l VA, but during apoptosis induction by 4 mmol/l VA, most of the apoptotic Annexin V positive cells were also CD4 positive. Using a clonogenic survival assay EC(50) for 3-day-long incubation with VA was determined. For HL-60 cells, the established EC(50) was 1.84 mmol/l, for MOLT-4 cells it was 1.76 mmol/l. Ability of VA to induce differentiation in HL-60 cells thus does not affect final cell killing. However, the elimination of the cells was considerably affected by presence of hematopoietic growth factors. 14-day-long incubation of HL-60 cells with VA in conditioned medium (source of IL-3, SCF, G-CSF) caused increase in EC(50) to 4 mmol/l, while in MOLT-4 cells (cultivation without conditioned medium), the EC(50) decreased to 0.63 mmol/l.