Leukemia

ABSTRACT-Various purine and pyrimidine analogs and metho-trexate were tested to determine whether they induce morphologic and functional myeloid differentiation in HL-60, a human pro-myelocytic leukemia cell line. Functional maturity was assessed by nitro blue tetrazolium reduction assays. 3-Deazauridine caused nearly all of the cells to differentiate during 6 days of treatment. Pyrazofurin, virazole, puromycin aminonucleoside, and the tri-cyclic nucleoside 3-amino-1,5-dihydro-5-methyl-1-p-o-ribofurano-syl-1,4,5,6,8-pentaazaacenaphthylene induced maturation in 44-64 % of the cells, whereas 5-azacytidine, 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine, 5-iodo-2'-deoxyuridine, thymidine, and the antimetabolite metho-trexate induced maturation in 28-36 % of the cells. In terms of effective concentration, the most potent inducer was methotrexate (10'8 M). The predominant cell types after treatment with all of these compounds were the metamyelocyte and banded neutro