Two distinctly regulated events, priming and triggering, during retinoid-induced maturation and resistance of NB4 promyelocytic leukemia cell line.

In t(15;17) acute promyelocytic leukemia, all-trans retinoic acid (RA) induces leukemic cell maturation in vitro and remission in acute promyelocytic leukemia patients, but in vivo treatments invariably lead to relapse with resistance to RA. NB4, a maturation-inducible cell line, and NB4-RAr sublines (R1 and R2) displaying no maturation in the presence of RA have been isolated from a patient in relapse. We show that resistance to maturation is not a mere unresponsiveness to RA: rather, R1 "resistant" cells do respond to RA (1 microM) by sustained growth, become competent to undergo terminal maturation, and up-regulate CD11c/CD18 integrins. Interestingly, maturation of "resistant" cells, rendered competent by RA, can be achieved by cAMP-elevating agents (prostaglandin E, isoproterenol, cholera toxin, or phosphodiesterase inhibitor) or stable agonistic cAMP analogs such as (SP)-8-chloroadenosine cyclic 3',5'-phosphorothioate. This shows that activation of cAMP-dependent protein kinase (cA kinase) can override the RA resistance and suggests interdependent RA and cAMP signaling pathways in acute promyelocytic leukemia maturation. No such cooperation was observed in the R2 resistant cells, though their cA-kinase was functional. (RP)-8-Chloroadenosine cyclic 3',5'-phosphorothioate, which by displacing endogenous cAMP inhibits the basal cA-kinase activity, decreased the response of sensitive cells to RA. This raises the possibility that cA-kinase plays a key role in the maturation also of RA-sensitive cells. Our results define two discrete steps in the maturation process: an RA-dependent priming step that maintains proliferation while cells become competent to undergo maturation in response to retinoids and a cAMP-dependent step that triggers RA-primed cells to undergo terminal maturation. Uncoupling RA and cAMP action might cause the so-called "resistance."