A lipophilic iron chelator induces an enhanced proliferation of human erythroleukaemia (HEL) cells.

Iron metabolism is important for proliferation, but in erythroid cells it is also required for haem synthesis. In erythroleukaemia cells, there is both a continuous proliferation and a synthesis of haem, and these cell lines are therefore especially interesting for studies on iron metabolism. Iron can be efficiently delivered intracellularly by certain chelators which bypass the transferrin-receptor-mediated pathway of iron uptake. We now show that the human erythroleukaemia cell line, HEL, displays a greatly enhanced cell proliferation when cultured in the presence of the lipophilic iron chelator, ferric pyridoxal isonicotinoyl hydrazone. The proliferation is not accompanied by an increase in haemoglobin synthesis. The response is apparently not typical for all erythroleukaemia cells, since a similar cell line, K 562, did not respond to the chelator by enhanced proliferation.