In vitro differentiation of a human erythroid cell line (KMOE) induced by some metabolic inhibitors

KMOE-2/05, a continuous human erythroid cell line derived from a patient with acute erythremia was capable of differentiating into benzidine positive cells following exposure to cytosine arabinoside (CA), mitomycin C, or daunorubicin. Among the three substances, CA was the most effective inducer. Other compounds, reported as effective inducers on human and murine erythroid cells, were also tested but they were ineffective. Benzidine positive cells were counted to be approximately 500/1 X 10(5) cells after 10 days incubation with CA at its optimal concentration of 1 X 10(-5) M. Under the same conditions, the hemoglobin (Hb) concentration quantitated by radioimmunoassay (RIA) was more than 500 ng/1 X 10(6) cells. Quantitative kinetics of synthesized Hb and of benzidine-positive cell counts, after exposure to CA were closely correlated.