Comparison of different methods for erythroid differentiation in the K562 cell line.

OBJECTIVE: To compare methods for erythroid differentiation of K562 cells that will be promising in the treatment of beta-thalassemia by inducing γ-globin synthesis. RESULTS: Cells were treated separately with: RPMI 1640 medium without glutamine, RPMI 1640 medium without glutamine supplemented with 1 mM sodium butyrate, RPMI 1640 medium supplemented with 1 mM sodium butyrate, 25 µg cisplatin/ml, 0.1 µg cytosine arabinoside/ml. The highest differentiation (84 %) with minimum toxicity was obtained with cisplatin at 15 µg /ml. Real-time RT-PCR showed that expression of the γ-globin gene was significantly higher in the cells differentiated with cisplatin compared to undifferentiated cells (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Cisplatin is useful in the experimental therapy of ß-globin gene defects and can be considered for examining the basic mechanism of γ-reactivation.