Effect of 5‐azacytidine on the differentiation of human leukemia k‐562 cells

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Abstract
The treatment of K‐562 cells with 10–5 M to 10–7 M 5‐azacytidine induced a marked increase in benzidine‐positive cells. Similarly, the exposure of K‐562 cells to 2 × 10–3M butyric acid or 5 × 10–7M 1‐β‐arabinofuranosylcytosine or 1 × 10–3 M hydroxyurea induced an erythroid differentiation of K‐562 cells. The activity of DNA‐methyltransferase and the level of methylcytosine in newly synthesized DNA were significantly decreased when the cells were treated with 5‐azacytidine or butyric acid, while l‐β‐arabinofuranosylcytosine or hydroxyurea had no inhibitory effect on DNA‐methylation of K‐562 cells. These results suggest that the inhibition of DNA‐methylation is not necessarily a specific phenomenon for erythroid differentiation of K‐562 cells.