Lipid composition of Friend leukemia cells following induction of erythroid differentiation by dimethyl sulfoxide

Abstract

The effects of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO)-induced differentiation of Friend leukemia cells in vitro on the lipid composition of these cells have been examined. DMSO had no early effect on the incorporation of either [14C]glycerol or [3H]methyl choline chloride into the total lipids or individual phospholipids of Friend cells up to 240 min after addition of the inducer. Examination of DMSO-differentiated Friend cell phospholipids revealed a percentage composition which was similar to control cells, with phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine in both uninduced and differentiated cells accounting for over 75% of the total phospholipid. Sphingomyelin levels were significantly lower in Friend cells than in normal adult mouse erythrocytes, and differentiation of murine erythroleukemia cells resulted in a further lowering of this phospholipid. In contrast, a significant increase in the level of phosphatidylethanolamine occurred as a result of maturation. Fatty acid analysis of major lipid classes of differentiated Friend cells showed significant reduction in saturation, but no alteration in chain length in comparison to undifferentiated cells. A pronounced decrease in the cellular content of both free and esterified cholesterol, which resulted in a 45% decrease in the ratio of cholesterol/phospholipids, occurred in cells differentiated by the polar solvent. The findings indicate that erythrodifferentiation induced by DMSO results in a variety of changes in the lipid composition of the membranes of Friend leukemia cells.

Commitment to differentiation of murine erythroleukemia cells involves a modulated plasma membrane depolarization through Ca2+‐activated K+ channels

“…One common feature of these agents is their ability to cause, in a few hours, cell commitment to differentiation, i.e., the gene remodelling that enables the cells to accomplish their terminal differentiation program even in the absence of the inducers (Gusella et al, 1976). At least two widely used inducers-namely, DMSO and HMBA-produce remarkable structural and functional changes in the plasma membrane, including variations of lipid composition (Fallani et al, 1986;Rittman et al, 1982;Zwingelstein et al, 1981, 19821, fluidity (Lyman et al, 19761, membrane protein phosphorylation (Earp et al, 19831, phosphatidylinositol turnover (Faletto et al, 19851, and ion fluxes (Mager and Bernstein, 1978;Smith et al, 1982). Remarkably, no indication has emerged so far concerning the effects of these inducers on A& of MEL cells or other cell types.…”

Distribution of the inducer of differentiation bis‐acetyl‐diaminopentane in murine erythroleukemia cells

“…The molecular mechanism(s) by which chemical inducers initiate cellular differentiation is unknown; however, evidence exists to suggest that interaction with the plasma membrane is a requisite step for the induction of maturation by these agents. This evidence includes the findings that: (a) most of the inducers are polar low molecular weight amphipathic compounds (Tanaka et al, 1975;Preisler et al, 1976) with the capacity to interact with both hydrophilic and hydrophobic regions of the cell surface; (b) membrane-targeted agents such as ouabain, an inhibitor of membrane-bound Na+, K+-ATPase, and local anesthetics can induce or inhibit, respectively, erythroid maturation (Bernstein et al, 1976a, b); (c) chemical inducers affect the transition temperature of phospholipids in unilamellar bilayers (Lyman et al, 1976); (d) an increase in the intracellular concentration of K + ions causes erythroid maturation of the murine leukemia cells (Mager et al, 1979); (el the degree of induction of differentiation of Friend leu-kemia cells by DMSO is dependent upon the lipid composition of the serum in the culture medium (Tsiftsoglou, 1979); and (0 phospholipid metabolism is altered in DMSO-treated erythroleukemia cells (Rittmann et al, 1978;Hare1 et al, 1979). The present report examines the effects of bis-acetyl-diaminopentane (BADP) on the induction of differentiation of murine erythroleukemia cells in vitro and demonstrates that this potent inducer interacts preferentially with membrane components of these cells.…”

Lipid characteristics of Friend erythroleukaemia cells differentiated by dimethyl sulphoxide or hexamethylenebisacetamide, and of non-inducible clones treated with the inducers

“…Some aspects of our experimental design have previously been investigated in other laboratories (Zwingelstein et al, 1981(Zwingelstein et al, , 1982Rittmann et al, 1982;Rawyler et al, 1983;Simon et al, 1984;Van der Schaft et al, 1987).…”