Differential effects of sodium butyrate, dimethyl sulfoxide, and retinoic acid on membrane-associated antigen, enzymes, and glycoproteins of human rectal adenocarcinoma cells.

The effects of sodium butyrate, dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), and retinoic acid on the growth, morphology, carcinoembryonic antigen content, cell surface membrane-associated enzyme activities, and glycoprotein profiles of a human rectal adenocarcinoma cell line (HRT-18) in culture were compared. All three agents reversibly caused a marked increase in doubling times, a decrease in saturation densities, and a markedly reduced colony-forming efficiency in soft agar. Only butyrate caused gross morphological changes including cell enlargement, flattening, and increased membranous process formation. Carcinoembryonic antigen content was increased during culture in butyrate, while it was reduced by DMSO and unchanged by retinoic acid. The activities of membrane-associated enzymes were altered significantly in the butyrate-treated cells. For example, an increase in the activities of alkaline phosphatase (10-fold), gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase activity (3-fold) and sucrase activity (2-fold) was observed, while those of aminooligopeptidase and K+-stimulated phosphatase actually showed slight decreases. DMSO- or retinoic acid-treated cells showed a marked decrease in alkaline phosphatase activity, but other enzyme activities remained unchanged. Surface protein-labeling patterns of lactoperoxidase-catalyzed iodinated HRT-18 cells showed no significant change from the control cells following treatment with DMSO or retinoic acid. The most prominent change caused by butyrate treatment was the appearance of a major glycoprotein band with an apparent molecular weight of 60,000. These data indicate that the use of butyrate, DMSO, and retinoic acid may provide useful information concerning the identification of differentiation-associated markers of human rectal cancer cells. Furthermore, these agents, although having similar effects on the growth properties, have different effects on the morphology and on the biochemical properties of human rectal cancer cells.