CSM News
Electronic Edition
Volume 4, number 15
April 22, 1995

Please submit abstracts of your papers as soon as they have been
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===========
 Abstracts
===========

DIF-1, morphogen of Dictyostelium discoideum, induces the erythroid
differentiation in murine and human leukemia cells.

Ken-ichi Asahi (a), Akira Sakurai (a), Nobutaka Takahashi (a),
Yuzuru Kubohara (b), Koji Okamoto (c), and Yoshimasa Tanaka (d)


(a) The institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN),
Wako-shi, Saitama 351-01, Japan; (b) Institute for Molecular and
Cellular Regulation, Gunma University, Maebashi, Gunma 371, Japan;
(c) Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Kyoto University,
Kyoto 606, Japan; and (d) Institute of Biological Sciences,
University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305, Japan

Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun.,  in press

Summary

   The structure of morphogen of Dictyostelium discoideum, DIF-1,
which was elucidated by Morris et al. proved to be closely similar to
that of differanisole A which had been isolated by us from the
metabolites of a simple eucaryote, Chaetomium, as the
differentiation-inducer of murine and human undifferentiated tumor
cells. This fact seemed to suggest the molecular structure playing an
important part in differentiation and development beyond species. We
have already examined whether differenisole A induces the
differentiation in Dictyostelium discoideum, and it was
morphologically and biochemically confirmed. In this study, we
examined whether DIF-1 induces the differentiation in murine and human
leukemia cells. Above the concentration of 2 micrograms/ml (6.5 micro
M), DIF-1 induced the differentiation in murine erythroleukemia B8
cells and in human leukemia K562 cells into the
hemoglobin-synthesizing erythrocyte-like cells.

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