QUANTITATIVE MORPHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT OF ERYTHROBLASTIC DIFFERENTIATION INDUCED, INVITRO, IN HUMAN K562 LEUKEMIC-CELLS

K562 human leukemia cell line undergoes in vitro terminal differentiat ion towards the erythroid pathway following treatments with appropriat e chemical agents including aclacinomycin, fagaronine and hemin. These three drugs induced a different expression of phenotypic and function al characters associated with differentiation. The morphological chara cteristics of the differentiation sequences elicited by these agents w ere evaluated by image analysis using a SAMBA 200 cell image processor . Multivariate statistical analyses of morphological data revealed tha t only aclacinomycin was able to induce significant modifications of t he morphological parameters similar to those observed during the matur ation of normal bone-marrow erythroblastic cells. These data correlate with the higher inductive potency of aclacinomycin as compared to hem in or fagaronine and suggest that quantitative cytology may be a usefu l adjunct to conventional tests for the selection of new drugs with di fferentiating potential.