K562 cell erythroid differentiation: requirement for a factor in fetal bovine serum

K562 human erythroleukemia cells can be induced to make hemoglobin by a variety of inducing agents. Most of these agents are effective in media supplemented with fetal bovine serum (FBS), but not in media supplemented with newborn bovine serum (NBS). The active factor in FBS has an apparent molecular weight of 30,000 daltons and appears to be a protein on the basis of the following properties: lability at 100 degrees C, inactivation by desferrioxamine plus trypsin, resistance to periodate, and resistance to ribonuclease. Media containing NBS can be used for induction if supplemented by either this factor or transferrin of bovine or human origin. The small size of the active factor (mol. wt. approximately 30,000 daltons) indicates that it is not identical to bovine transferrin (mol. wt. approximately 77,000 daltons). However, when iron-saturated bovine transferrin is digested with trypsin, the peptide fragments produced resemble the FBS factor in activity, size, and reaction with antibovine serum transferrin.