Alteration of nm23 gene expression during the induced differentiation of human leukemia cell lines

The nm23-H1 gene is regarded as a human homologue of the mouse nm23 gene, which was expressed in a non-metastatic subline of mouse melanoma K-1735. The expression levels of nm23-H1 mRNA and the levels of protein during induced differentiation of human leukemia cell lines were analysed. mRNA levels of the megakaryoblastic leukemia line MEG-01, which were induced to differentiate into megakaryocyte by TPA, decreased rapidly from 2 days after the start of treatment and became almost undetectable at day 4. Similar down-regulation of nm23-H1 mRNA was also observed in the induced differentiation of the promyelocytic leukemia line HL-60 by TPA, or DMSO into monocyte-macrophage lineage or granulocytes, respectively. The amount of Nm23-H1 protein was analysed by Western immuno-blot analysis using mouse antiserum raised against a recombinant fusion protein with glutathione S-transferase. The amount of Nm23-H1 protein also decreased during the induced differentiation of these leukemia cell lines. On the other hand, in the differentiation of the erythroleukemia line K562 by hemin, levels of both mRNA and protein of Nm23-H1 elevated transiently, then reduced to the original level. When MEG-01 and K562 were stably transfected with nm23-H1 cDNA, MEG-01 transfectants showed reduced sensitivity to the induction of differentiation, whereas K562 transfectants were better induced to synthesize hemoglobin than controls. These findings suggest the possibility that Nm23-H1 protein plays an important role to maintain the proliferation of immature leukemic cells in MEG-01 and HL-60, but it may also play a role in the early stage of K562 differentiation, possibly in the different manner.