Lipid characteristics of Friend erythroleukaemia cells differentiated by dimethyl sulphoxide or hexamethylenebisacetamide, and of non-inducible clones treated with the inducers.

We studied the lipid changes in Friend erythroleukaemia (FEL) cells differentiated by dimethyl sulphoxide (DMSO) or hexamethylenebisacetamide (HMBA). We also examined clones of FEL cells non-inducible to differentiation by DMSO or HMBA for lipid changes not related to the differentiation process. A decrease in triacylglycerols was found in both DMSO- or HMBA-differentiated FEL cells, whereas a decrease in phosphatidylethanolamine was observed only in DMSO-differentiated FEL cells. The characteristics of the phospholipid fatty acid profiles of FEL cells, which proved to be similar to those of other transformed cells, were not significantly affected by erythroid differentiation.