Expression of proto-oncogene products during drug-induced differentiation of a neuroblastoma cell line SK-N-DZ.

Four human neuroblastoma cell lines exhibited differences in their ability to differentiate into neuron-like cells in response to three different treatments, serum deprivation, or additions of dibutyryl cyclic-AMP or retinoic acid. Expression of N-myc gene product was reduced in neuroblastoma cell line SK-N-DZ differentiated by retinoic acid as compared with untreated cells. On the contrary, expression of c-src gene product, pp60c-src, was considerably enhanced in differentiated SK-N-DZ cells. Tyrosine phosphorylation of several cellular proteins was found to be enhanced in differentiated cells. Alteration in expression of these proto-oncogene products might be important in the differentiation of neuroblastoma cells into neuron-like cells.