Induction of morphological and functional differentiation of human promyelocytic leukemia cells (HL-60) by componuds which induce differentiation of murine leukemia cells.

Various compounds active in promoting in vitro differentiation of certain murine leukemia cell lines (Friend erythroleukemia cells and mouse myeloid leukemia cells) were tested for their capacity to induce differentiation of HL-60 cells, a human promyelocytic leukemia cell line capable of terminally differentiating in vitro to functionally mature granulocytes. Polar planar compounds including hexamethylene bisacetamide (HMBA), certain purines (particularly hypoxanthine), and actinomycin-D induced morphological and functional (as assessed by the capacity to reduce NBT dye) differentiation of HL-60. In contrast, hemin, ouabain, prostaglandin E1, X-irradiation, dexamethasone and some other anti-leukemic chemotherapeutic agents induced little if any significant differentiation of HL-60 cells. These results, together with previous observations with murine leukemia cells, suggest that the human HL-60 cells share common cellular target sites for the inducing action of polar planar compounds, hypoxanthine and actinomycin-D with some murine leukemic cells. In contrast, hemin, ouabain and prostaglandin E1 may be specific for mouse erythroleukemia cells, while X-irradiation and chemotherapeutic agents induce differentiation of both types (erythroid and myeloid) of mouse leukemic cells, but have little effect on HL-60 cells.