Effects of differentiation inducing chemicals on in vivo malignancy and NK susceptibility of metastatic lymphoma cells.

In the present investigation we have determined the effects of the differentiation-inducing chemicals dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and sodium butyrate on the growth and tumorigenicity of a highly malignant/metastatic cell line (RAW117-H10) and its less tumorigenic parental lymphoma cell line (RAW117-P). Both of these agents at doses shown to be nontoxic slowed the growth of these cells in suspension culture and significantly lengthened the doubling time while reducing colony formation in the agar tumor stem cell assay. Corresponding to these observations, the in vivo tumorigenicity of the highly malignant RAW117-H10 line was reduced by both chemicals but particularly by butyrate treatment. In addition, both agents increased the expression of some glycoproteins and the glycolipid asialo GM1. There was also a corresponding increase in the NK susceptibility of the normally NK resistant RAW117-H10 cells. To determine if the decreased malignancy of the highly malignant cells following treatment with the chemical agents was primarily due to the alteration in cell surface glycoconjugates or merely due to concomitant decreased growth potential, we transplanted highly glycosylated membrane fragments from normal syngeneic thymocytes to both RAW117-P and RAW117-H10 cells using a Sendai virus mediated membrane fusion technique. The in vivo tumorigenicity of the membrane altered RAW117-H10 cells was significantly decreased. These results strongly suggest that the decreased in vivo malignancy of RAW117-H10 cells resulting from treatment with chemical differentiation agents is caused by their increased susceptibility to NK cell mediated lysis which in turn results from cell surface changes involving altered, primarily increased, expression of certain glycosylated surface molecules. The cell surface glycoconjugates, such as receptors for certain lectins and glycolipid asialo GM1, can be used as markers for malignant potential and NK sensitivity of malignant lymphoid cells.