Cytotoxicity of human beta-interferon for differentiating leukemic HL-60 cells

We examined the effect of human interferon (HuIFN) -alpha and -beta on the proliferation and differentiation induced by dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) of HL-60 human promyelocytic leukemia cells into mature granulocytes. Neither HuIFN-alpha nor -beta, alone, from 1 to 1000 IU/ml, nor the homologous mock HuIFN preparations affected HL-60 cell differentiation or proliferation. Whereas the combination of HuIFN-alpha (10 to 1000 IU/ml) with DMSO also did not affect the proliferation or differentiation of HL-60 cells, the addition of HuIFN-beta (1000 IU/ml) and DMSO (1.25%) to growing cultures reduced cell viability as much as 14% of that observed for cells treated with DMSO alone or to 4% of that observed for either untreated cells or those treated with HuIFN-beta alone. The cytotoxic effect declined with decreasing concentrations of HuIFN-beta. The cytotoxic effect of DMSO and HuIFN-beta was exerted only as cells began to differentiate. Removal of HuIFN-beta at Day 2 did not reverse the cytotoxic effect, and addition of HuIFN-beta at Day 2 did not inhibit cell proliferation. Addition of HuIFN-beta to postmitotic cells on Day 4 after DMSO treatment did not affect proliferation but did slow differentiation. The cytotoxic and antidifferentiative effects of naturally produced HuIFN-beta were confirmed with highly purified recombinant HuIFN-beta. Undifferentiated HL-60 cells were resistant to the antiviral effects of HuIFN-beta, requiring 4 to 6 times the concentration to protect 50% of the cells against vesicular stomatitis virus as that needed to produce a cytotoxic or antidifferentiative effect. The profoundly cytotoxic effects of HuIFN-beta reported here may provide a model to study this interferon in combination with inducers of leukemic cell differentiation as a possible strategy in cancer therapy.