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Effect of IL-3 on Globin Gene Expression in a Human Erythroleukemia Cell Line
Xiao-Dong Cheng1, Heng-Yue Xie, Ruo-Lan Qian
1Shanghai Institute of Cell Biology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China. qianlab@sunm.shcnc.ac.cn
Abstract:
A human erythroleukemia cell line(K562 cells)was used as a model to study the effect of interleukin-3(IL-3) on human globin gene expression in the cells. The results showed that the beta-globin gene was not expressed in uninduced K562 cells however, it was expressed when K562 cells were induced for 3 or 5 days by IL-3. The expression of alpha- and gamma-globin gene were not much different between IL-3 induced and uninduced K562 cells. Using the method of benzidine-dyeing, it was observed that the percentage of blue cells was significantly increased when K562 cells were induced by IL-3. It suggested that IL-3 could not only activate the exp-ression of beta-globin gene in K562 cells, but also induce the synthesis of hemoglobin. Therefore, IL-3 may play a critical role in inducing K562 cells to terminal differentiation.