Development of chemotactic responsiveness in myeloid precursor cells: studies with a human leukemia cell line.

Abstract

The events that occur during the development of chemotaxis were studied in HL60, a promyelocytic leukemia cell line that acquires the features of mature neutrophils when exposed to dimethylformamide (DMF). Chemotactic function first appears between 48-96 h of DMF induction and is associated not only with the coincidental development of deformability, spontaneous motility, greatly increased binding of fMet-Leu-Phe and orientation but also with decreasing cell size and pleomorphism of nuclei. Surface adhesiveness develops earlier (36-48 h) and is coincident with a 10-fold increase in protein synthesis not seen in other DMF-inducible cell lines. This burst of protein synthesis precedes the expression of chemotactic function. The HL60 cell line can provide a useful model for delineating control mechanisms responsible for the development of complex cellular functions present in differentiated myeloid cells in humans.