Structure and expression of ferritin genes in a human promyelocytic cell line that differentiates in vitro.

HL-60 is a human promyelocytic cell line with the capability of differentiating in vitro to give neutrophils, macrophages, or eosinophils. We screened libraries of HL-60 cDNA clones representing different time points during these differentiation processes to isolate clones corresponding to mRNAs whose expression is regulated during terminal differentiation. Upon sequencing this group of regulated clones, one clone encoding the heavy subunit and two clones encoding the light subunit of human ferritin were identified by reference to published amino acid sequences. Southern blot analyses showed that these clones are encoded by distinct multigene families. These clones identify two mRNAs whose ratios vary in a complex manner during both neutrophil and macrophage differentiation.