Actinomycin D restores in vivo sensitivity to differentiation induction of non-differentiating mouse myeloid leukemia cells.

Resistant mouse myeloid leukemia cells could not be induced to differentiate in vitro into mature macrophages and granulocytes by incubation with ascitic fluid or dexamethasone as inducer. Neither could endogenous inducers acting on resistant cells maintained in a diffusion chamber in syngeneic SL mice induce differentiation. However, when resistant cells were pretreated in vitro with low doses of actinomycin D they became sensitive to inducer in vitro or in vivo. The concentration of actinomycin D effective for this effect did not induce differentiation. The effect of actinomycin D was not due to inhibition of cell growth, since sensitivity was not observed when resistant cells were pretreated with the growth inhibitor 5-fluorodeoxyuridine. When resistant cells were kept in a diffusion chamber in mice injected with low doses of actinomycin D they showed significant differentiation, suggesting that the in vivo effect of actinomycin D is partly attributable to sensitization of the resistant cells to endogenous inducers.