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Immunocytochemical Localization of the Glucocorticoid Receptor in Steroidsensitive and -resistant Human Leukemic Cells¹

Department of Anatomy, McGill University, 3640 University Street, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 2B2 [T. A., D. O.]; and Department of Human Biological Chemistry and Genetics, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas [E. B. T.]

Because of their lympholytic action, glucocorticoids are included in most therapeutic regimens for the treatment of lymphomas and leukemias. The presence of functional glucocorticoid receptor may be predictive of the response to hormonal therapy in these diseases. We have developed an immunocytochemical procedure for human glucocorticoid receptor (GR) in order to assess its level and subcellular distribution in a well-studied system of childhood lymphoblastic leukemia cells (CEM), where sensitive and resistant subclones have been established. Several fixation and cell permeabilization protocols were compared. The most sensitive and reproducible one for light microscopy was prefixation in Bouin's solution followed by cytocentrifugation. Using various polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies, the GR was consistently localized predominantly in the cell cytoplasm in the absence of steroid. We compared localization of GR following glucocorticoid treatment in the glucocorticoid-sensitive clone CEM C7 with resistant subclones (4R4, 3R43, ICR27). Upon incubation with glucocorticoid, an increase in nuclear staining was clearly observed in the steroid-sensitive C7 cells. Although the resistant cell lines contain immunoreactive GR, they failed to show nuclear translocation following glucocorticoid treatment. This outlines the importance of the immunocytochemical procedure to distinguish between sensitive and resistant leukemic cells. Whether this test could be used prospectively to help select glucocorticoid therapy in human leukemias and lymphomas can now be examined.

¹ This work was supported by grants from the National Cancer Institute of Canada (to T. A.) and The National Cancer Institute of the United States (to E. B. T.). This paper is dedicated to the memory of Howard J. Eisen (7/31/42–2/7/87).

² To whom requests for reprints should be addressed.

Received 6/13/88. Revised 9/ 7/89. Accepted 10/26/89.

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