Involvement of oxygen radicals in the differentiation of rat myelomonocytic leukemia cells in vitro and in vivo.

We have found that LPS induces the differentiation of an LPS-resistant subline (LR) of rat myelomonocytic leukemia cell line, c-WRT-7, in vivo, which are resistant to the differentiation inducing effects of LPS in vitro. Furthermore, we have found that the differentiation of LR cells induced by LPS is inhibited by superoxide dismutase, which is one of radical scavengers. Accordingly, we have examined the differentiation inducing effects of xanthine oxidase, a potential source of oxygen radicals, on LR cells in vitro and in vivo. Xanthine oxidase induced the differentiation of LR cells into macrophage-like cells in vitro; and superoxide dismutase inhibited the differentiation of LR cells induced by xanthine oxidase both in vitro and in vivo. These results suggest that oxygen radicals are involved in the differentiation inducing effects of LPS.