Specific binding of [3H]phorbol dibutyrate to phorbol diester-responsive and -resistant clones of a human myeloid leukemia (KG-1) line 1.

Phorbol diesters induce macrophage-like differentiation in KG-1 and HL-60 human acute myelogenous leukemia cell lines. We developed a cloned subline of KG-1, known as KG-1a, that does not differentiate when exposed to phorbol diesters. Both KG-1 and KG-1a cells have a single class of specific high-affinity receptors for labeled phorbol-12,13-dibutyrate with a mean Kd of 1.47 +/- 0.10 (S.E.) X 10(-8) M and 0.85 +/- 0.20 X 10(-8) M for the sensitive parental KG-1 line and the resistant KG-1a subline, respectively (p less than 0.025). The number of [3H]phorbol-12,13-dibutyrate binding sites (mean +/- S.E.) per cell was 3.85 +/- 0.98 X 10(5) and 3.94 +/- 0.31 X 10(5) on KG-1 and resistant KG-1a cells, respectively. We observed no significant decrease of specific binding with time (down regulation) in either KG-1, KG-1a, or HL-60 cells, suggesting that down regulation of specific phorbol-12,13-dibutyrate binding is not critical to induction of differentiation. Our data also confirm that the presence of specific high-affinity phorbol receptors on leukemic cells does not assure that phorbol diesters can trigger their differentiation.