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Effect of Dexamethasone on Hexamethylene Bisacetamide-induced Friend Cell Erythrodifferentiation¹

Department of Cellular and Developmental Immunology, Research Institute of Scripps Clinic, La Jolla, California 92037

Friend erythroleukemic cells can be induced to differentiate by chemicals such as dimethyl sulfoxide and hexamethylene bisacetamide (HMBA) in a dose-dependent manner. Others have shown that dexamethasone and other steroid hormones can inhibit the differentiation induced by dimethyl sulfoxide. We show here that dexamethasone has a dual mode of action on the HMBA-induced differentiation of a Friend cell line, DS19.

At concentrations above 10^-10 M, dexamethasone inhibits the HMBA-induced differentiation in DS19 cells. We further found that, as the concentration of HMBA is reduced, the amount of dexamethasone required to inhibit differentiation increases. Such inhibition seems to act primarily by decreasing the probability that a cell will become committed to differentiate. Besides, dexamethasone does not inhibit hemoglobin synthesis of cells which are committed in its absence. In addition, we show that sensitivity to the inhibition by dexamethasone is inversely related to the inducibility of cell populations.

The second action of dexamethasone, observed at concentrations between 10^-10 and 10^-13 M, is to increase the proportion of hemoglobin-containing cells relative to that for cells cultured in its absence. The degree of this synergistic effect for induced differentiation is inversely related to the level of induction in the absence of dexamethasone and thus is best observed in the cells cultured at low levels of HMBA. We present evidence that this synergistic effect may be due to an increased viability of the induced cells and possibly an increased in the proliferative capacity of these cells.

¹ Supported by Grant HL 21845 from the NIH to J. Yu.

² On leave from the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. Present address: Laboratoire de Biologie Moleculaire et Cellulaire, Dept. de Recherche Fondamentale, CENG, 85X, Grenoble-Cedex, 38041, France.

³ Supported by USPHS Training Grant GM 07438-03 and American Cancer Society Grant BC 267. Present address: LAC-USC Medical Center, Dept. of Medicine, Los Angeles, Calif. 90033.

⁴ Recipient of an Established Investigator Award from the American Heart Association. To whom requests for reprints should be addressed.

Received 4/28/81. Accepted 11/ 5/81.