Etoposide-induced differentiation of U937 promonocytic cells: AP-1-dependent gene expression and protein kinase C activation.

The administration of 150 nM etoposide, an inhibitor of DNA topoisomerase II activity, decreased the proliferation and induced the differentiation of U937 human promonocytic cells, as determined by nitroblue tetrazolium reduction, surface accumulation of CD11b/CD18 and CD11c/CD18 integrins, and c-fms protooncogene expression. The expression of these differentiation markers started to be detected at 24 h of treatment. Etoposide caused little cell damage, as determined by trypan blue exclusion and by apoptotic-like DNA degradation, which was slightly initiated at 48 h. The treatment induced a transient increase in c-fos, c-jun, and jun B mRNA levels, with maximum values at 12 h, a transient increase in collagenase mRNA level, with maximum value at 48 h, and a progressive increase in vimentin and lamin A and C mRNAs. These changes were qualitatively similar to those produced by 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate. Etoposide also caused a transient increase of total AP-1 binding activity, with maximum value at 12 h of treatment, as determined by gel retardation assays. The drug produced an early transient activation (3-6 h) of membrane-bound protein kinase C, followed by the later activation (48 h) of both the membrane and cytosolic enzyme. The protein kinase C inhibitors, sphinganine and 1-(5-isoquinolinylsulfonyl)-2-methylpiperazine (H7), attenuated the induction of differentiation markers by etoposide. These results suggest that protein kinase C and AP-1-dependent gene expression could be involved in myeloid cell differentiation by DNA topoisomerase II inhibitors.