Retinoic acid alone and in combination with cytosine arabinoside induces differentiation of human myelomonocytic and monoblastic leukaemic cells

The effect of retinoic acid (RA) alone and in combination with cytosine arabinoside (Ara-C) on differentiation of fresh human myeloid leukaemic cells from patients with AML was studied. Cells from six patients: three with acute myelomonocytic leukaemia AMMoL and three with acute monoblastic leukaemia AMoL with a percentage of blasts greater than 70, were treated in an in vitro primary suspension culture with retinoic acid (10(-7) M), cytosine arabinoside (100 ng/ml) or both in combination. Non-adherent mononuclear cells were seeded at a concentration of 5 x 10(5) cells/ml in RPMI 1640 culture medium supplemented with 20 per cent fetal bovine serum and 10 per cent (PHA-LCM) phytohaemagglutinin leucocyte conditioned medium and incubated for 6 days at 37 degrees C in a humidified incubator containing 5 per cent CO2 in air. Morphological and functional differentiation into terminal mature elements was induced in all leukaemia cells of the six patients following exposure to the combination of both agents. These results suggest the potential usefulness of the combination of a differentiating agent (retinoic acid) and an antileukaemic drug (cytosine arabinoside) in the treatment of acute myeloid leukaemias: AMMoL and AMoL. This combination warrants a clinical trial.