Protein kinase C activity during sphinganine potentiation of retinoic acid-induced differentiation in a human leukemia cell line (HL-60)

The differentiation of HL-60 promyelocytic cells towards mature granulocytic cells induced by retinoic acid (RA) was accompanied by a decrease in protein kinase C (PKC) activity. The enhancement of RA-induced differentiation and the potentiation of the decrease of PKC activity by sphinganine (SP) seemed to correlate with each other. Kinetically, PKC activity during RA-induced differentiation without SP decreased to its lowest (75% of the control) after 48h; about 50% of the reduction was observed at 24h. In the presence of SP, PKC activity decreased more rapidly to its lowest (60% of the control) within 24h of incubation of RA. SP, added 24h before or concomitantly with the addition of RA, could potentiate the RA-induced differentiation and the reduction of PKC activity. Our results indicate that the effect of SP and the role of PKC during RA-induced differentiation may be critical at the early stages of induction of differentiation (within 24h of RA exposure).