HEL and K562 cells: analysis of proteins by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and comparison to erythroid and nonerythroid cells.

We have examined the total protein composition of the erythroleukemia cell lines K562 and HEL using high-resolution two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and have compared them with the pattern obtained by normal erythroid and nonerythroid cells. The proteins from the two cell lines, K562 and HEL, gave two-dimensional patterns that were similar to each other and to that of normal lymphocytes or leukemic cell lines. In contrast, normal erythroid precursor cells (BFUe-derived normoblasts) and erythrocytes have a protein profile that is characteristic and significantly different from that of normal lymphocytes or the leukemic cell lines examined. These data suggest a common protein profile in hemopoietic cells at early stages of differentiation (K562, HEL, or other leukemic lines) and in normal lymphocytes. Erythroid cells, in contrast to lymphoid cells, appear to diverge significantly from this common protein profile when differentiation proceeds to the level of morphologically recognizable erythroid cells. Induction of K562 and HEL cells by hemin produces changes in the abundance of several proteins, but fails to change the overall protein profile of the two cell lines.