Increment of nonreceptor tyrosine kinase Arg RNA as evaluated by semiquantitative RT-PCR in granulocyte and macrophage-like differentiation of HL-60 cells.

The products of the human Arg gene and human, mouse, Drosophila, and nematode Abl genes characterize the Abelson family of nonreceptor tyrosine protein kinase. The Arg gene, expressed as a 12-kb transcript, codes a protein highly related to c-abl in the tyrosine kinase, SH2, and SH3 domains, and both proteins have a myristoylated isoform. The C-terminal domains of Arg and c-abl, poorly similar to each other, may account for their different functions. Arg is cytoplasmic, c-abl also has nuclear localization, and their products have different transforming activity. To gain insight about the role of Arg in myeloid differentiation we investigated Arg gene expression in HL-60 cells differentiated with all-trans retinoic acid and 12-O-tetradecanoyl-phorbol-13-acetate. With a semiquantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction assay it was evident that the Arg transcript level in HL-60 cells differentiated toward granulocyte and macrophage-like lineage was, respectively, 3.5- and 2.8-fold the Arg level evidenced in undifferentiated HL-60 cells. In the HL-60 cells, under the same differentiating conditions, the c-abl RNA level did not change significantly, showing that Arg and c-abl responded in a different way to the inducers of differentiation used.