Effects of inhibitors of protein tyrosine kinase activity and/or phosphatidylinositol turnover on differentiation of some human myelomonocytic leukemia cells

The activities of protein tyrosine kinase and phosphatidylinositol turnover have been found to be associated with cell growth and differentiation. We examined the effects of some inhibitors for these biochemical activities in human myelogenous leukemia cells. Genistein, which is known to inhibit the activities of protein tyrosine kinase, phosphatidylinositol turnover and topoisomerase II, induced nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT) reduction and lysozyme activity in ML-1, HL-60 and U937 cells. Morphological studies showed that genistein-induced differentiation of myeloblastic ML-1 cells into promyelocytes and of promyelocytic HL-60 cells into mature granulocytes. The differentiation-inducing effect of genistein was augmented by addition of 1 alpha,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (VD3) or retinoic acid, VD3 being more effective than retinoic acid. Methyl 2,5-dihydroxycinamate, a protein tyrosine kinase inhibitor, had only a weak effect in inducing differentiation of ML-1 cells. On the other hand, psi-tectorigenin was more effective than genistein in inducing the differentiations of ML-1 and HL-60 cells. Psi-tectorigenin is reported to inhibit phosphatidylinositol turnover without inhibiting protein tyrosine kinase. Thus modulation of phosphatidylinositol turnover might be more important than that of protein tyrosine kinase activity for differentiation of some myelogenous leukemia cells.