Physicochemical Surface Changes on Phagocytic Cells during Differentiation in Relation to Chemotaxis and Phagocytosis

Abstract

Established cell lines with appropriate functional markers for cell differentiation offer simple methods for study of the regulation of cell differentiation. A human promyelocytic leukemia cell line, HL-60, was recently established from the peripheral blood of a patient with acute promyelocytic leukemia¹. The majority of the HL-60 cells are promyelocytic in morphology and histochemistry, but 5–10% show morphological characteristics of more mature cells. Induction of morphologic and functional differentiation can be induced by dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) or other polar solvents¹. In addition phorbol diester tumor promoters² and conditioned media³ can induce differentiation. Several investigations have recently demonstrated that differentiation is accompanied by functional changes such as increased migration and chemotactic responsiveness⁴, increased oxidative metabolism, phagocytosis and bacterial killing^4,5. Furthermore, the cell surface glycoprotein pattern is altered with the expression of a 130.000 dalton glycoprotein⁶.