Magnolol and honokiol enhance HL-60 human leukemia cell differentiation induced by 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 and retinoic acid.

Magnolol (MG) and honokiol (HK), two lignans showing anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties and abundantly available in the medicinal plants Magnolia officinalis and M. obovata, were found to enhance HL-60 cell differentiation initiated by low doses of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (VD3) and all-trans-retinoic acid (ATRA). Cells expressing membrane differentiation markers CD11b and CD14 were increased from 4% in non-treated control to 8-16% after being treated with 10-30 microM MG or HK. When added to 1 nM VD3, MG or HK increased markers expressing cells from approximately 30% to 50-80%. When either MG or HK was added to 20 nM ATRA, only CD11b, but not CD14, expressing cells were increased from 9% to 24-70%. Under the same conditions, adding MG or HK to VD3 or ATRA treatment further enlarged the G0/G1 cell population and increased the expression of p27(Kip1), a cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor. Pharmacological studies using PD098059 (a MEK inhibitor), SB203580 (a p38 MAPK inhibitor) and SP600125 (a JNK inhibitor) suggested that the MEK pathway was important for VD3 and ATRA-induced differentiation and also its enhancement by MG or HK, the p38 MAPK pathway had a inhibitory effect and the JNK pathway had little influence. It is evident that MG and HK are potential differentiation enhancing agents which may allow the use of low doses of VD3 and ATRA in the treatment for acute promyelocytic leukemia.

Betulinic acid enhances 1alpha,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3-induced differentiation in human HL-60 promyelocytic leukemia cells.

Betulinic acid (BA) is a pentacyclic triterpene found in a number of medicinal plants and has been shown to cause apoptosis in a number of cell lines. We report here that BA may also have an effect on HL-60 cell differentiation. BA was cytotoxic to HL-60 cells with an IC50 of 5.7 microM after a 72-h treatment. Flow cytometry analysis showed that after exposure to 1-12 microM of BA for 72 h, approximately 10% of viable cells were in the sub-G1, presumably apoptotic, phase. At the same time differentiation was induced in approximately 10% (at 1 microM BA) to a maximum of 20% (at 6 microM BA) of cells as judged by the NBT-reduction test, and the expression of membrane markers CD11b and CD14. On the other hand, at 1 and 5 nM, 1alpha,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (DHD3) induced differentiation in approximately 10 and 70% of cells, respectively. At 1 nM DHD3, the addition of 1 microM BA increased differentiated cells from 10 to 43% and with 3 microM BA the increase was to 80%. BA also enhanced the effects of DHD3 in the expansion of the G1 cell population with a concomitant decrease of S phase cells. The effects of DHD3 and BA on CD11b and CD14 expression were inhibited by PD98059, a MEK inhibitor. Our results suggest that BA may enhance the effect of DHD3 in inducing mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase/extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase-mediated HL-60 cell differentiation.

Induction of HL-60 cell differentiation by the p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase inhibitor SB203580 is mediated through the extracellular signal-regulated kinase signaling pathway.

The pyridinyl imidazole p38 kinase inhibitor, SB203580, was initially used to block inflammatory cytokine synthesis. Here we report that SB203580 by itself could induce human promyeloid leukemic HL-60 cells to differentiate mainly along the granulocytic lineage, as evidenced by cellular morphological changes, and the concurrent expression of cell surface markers CD11b and CD14. This differentiation induction was time and dose dependent. After 12 h exposure to 10 microM SB203580, 12.5% of the cells became CD11b as compared to only 2.6% in untreated control cells. By 96 h, CD11b cells increased to 72.3%, and among them, 26% were CD14. Morphologically, the cells were smaller in size with lower nuclear/cytoplasmic ratio. The nucleus was indented and nucleoli markedly reduced. However, 10 microM SB203580 had little effect on HL-60 cell growth and survival during the first 72 h, but by 96 h the percentage of cells in G1 phase was markedly increased. These effects of SB203580 were not attributable to its inhibition of p38 kinase activity. Instead, the essential kinases in the extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) pathway such as phospho-Raf-1, phospho-MEK1/2, phospho-ERK1/2 and phospho-p90RSK were all elevated dramatically shortly after cells were exposed to SB203580 and lasted for 24 h before declining. Pre-incubation of cells with 20 microM of PD98059 1 h before addition of SB203580 could completely block the expression of differentiation markers. Our results suggest that SB203580-induced differentiation in HL-60 cells was mediated by activation of MEK/ERK signaling. In conclusion, our data have shown that SB203580 possessed biological activities other than inhibition of p38 and these activities could make it a potential candidate as an inducing agent for cell differentiation in the therapeutic treatment of leukemia.