UV-induced DNA repair in leukemic cell differentiation.

Ultraviolet light (UV)-induced DNA repair during myeloid leukemic cell differentiation was examined. Human myeloid leukemic cells could be induced to differentiate in vitro into mature cells by various chemical inducers that lost their proliferating potencies. In spite of decrease of proliferation capacity, almost all these terminally differentiated myeloid leukemic cells invariably showed UV-induced unscheduled DNA synthesis (UDS) at low energy of UV irradiation (3-5J/m2). This indicated that the terminally differentiated myeloid leukemic cells are functionally quite different from mature granulocytes in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) or in normal peripheral blood. In HL-60 cells, UV-survival was enhanced in the process of differentiation induced by 1.25% DMSO or 0.6 mM sodium n-butyrate. The degree of enhancement of UV-survival was correlated with the increased amount of UDS. The process of myeloid leukemic cell differentiation which is completed without loss of capacity performing repair DNA synthesis was one of the characteristics of the terminally differentiated myeloid leukemic cells induced by chemical inducers in vitro and this function may support the hypothesis that DNA breaking and rejoining are involved in a mechanism of cytodifferentiation.